Campaign against obstruction of free-flow of traffic along the streets of Calabar has taken a new twist, as motorists who violate the traffic flow while picking and dropping passengers without clearing their vehicles off the road risk their vehicles being impounded by the state taskforce on traffic monitoring/regulation.
The state Commissioner for Transportation, Pastor Ekpeyong Cobham disclosed this while answering questions from Journalists at the end of a session with stakeholders in the transport sector in Calabar, on Monday.
Cobham added that owners of such impounded vehicles would pay a fine before they can have their vehicles released to them.
“Drivers must clear their vehicles well each time they stopped to pick passengers along the street to avoid obstructing the flow of traffic.
“Clear well,’ so that you don’t obstruct other motorists plying same road with you; so that you won’t obstruct other road users from going about their day’s businesses.
“Clear well’ is a slogan and concept which as government, we intend to take to next level, in consideration with the different challenges we are faced with in the sector.
“A total re-orientation and mindset of the drivers is very necessary. They need to be conscious on the fact that, if you want to pick a passenger, just clear well. You want to drop a passenger just clear well. This can lead us to other milestones that we wish to archive.
“The system as it is today, calls for absolute re-orientation. Some of these drivers did not attend basic driving school and all of that. We discover that all of these challenges, are a stop- gap measure that can arrest this case.
“Law No 2, 2015 regulating states categorically, if you obstruct traffic, you pay a fine of N10, 000. In as much as we are committed to implementing those laws, we also want to work out modalities where we can reach out to the mindset of this category of people.
“Like we all know, transportation sub-sector is an all-comer affairs, there is no entry qualification. A lot of these people are lacking in basic understanding, so we try to engage them by coming up with this kind of re-orientation,” Cobham said.
He added that, “For the launching of the slogan, ‘Clear Well,’ once we get mobilisation from His Excellency after engagement with him and we get approval, we will kick-start enlightenment campaign. God willing, we are sure that we will succeed.”
He explained that the town hall with drivers’ associations was necessary to brainstorm and rub minds with about 500 commercial drivers and other players in the sector to enable them understand the direction the government was going in the transportation sector.
“We needed to create this forum for certain persons who have rebellious tendencies to be able to engage with government and vent whatever misgivings they have so that we can be on same page,” he added.
Others issues discussed at the interactive forum include spraying of commercial vehicles with state colours, welfare of drivers, leadership of the transport union, welfare, ticketing, security coding and enforcement of obstruction rule.