Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced the clamp down of illegal motor parks, arresting 19 commercial vehicles and one commercial motorcycle in the territory.
The development is to curb the challenges of one chance, kidnapping, traffic congestion, and getting rid of criminal elements.
The affected vehicles, our correspondent reports, were illegally picking up and dropping off passengers at the road corridor, therefore obstructing the free flow of traffic.
The FCT minister taskforce team comprises of Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), and the Directorate of Road Traffic Services, FCT VIO.
The head of Operations in FCT VIO, Deborah Osho, decried the traffic congestion on the road caused by illegal commercial taxi drivers.
“This is the taskforce team that was constituted by FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike. What you are seeing now is clearing the road corridor on the popular Banex road, Wuse II that has been taken over by illegal commercial taxis.
“The illegal commercial taxis took over 50 percent of the road corridor picking and dropping passengers, meanwhile there is an approved park where they can pick and drop their passengers, but they do not use it, most of them prefer to use the road corridor, therefore, blocking the free flow of traffic on Banex road.
“About 19 vehicles were arrested along Banex road and one commercial motorcycle. This exercise is continuous, once we enforce, we clear and then we pin down. And the pin-down is continuous.
“This will curb the challenges of one chance and will also address the issue of illegal commercial taxis, this will also clean the city and make Abuja safe, especially during this yuletide period,” she said.
Also, the secretary of Command and Control, Peter Olumiji, said the exercise will help to get rid of one chance menace in Abuja.
“This joint exercise that we commenced today has two faces, number one, to clear the illegal park of criminal elements that run these one-chance taxis, and to also clear the parks of sales and trafficking of illegal drugs.
“They used the opportunity of illegal parks to transact their businesses. One chance is done at illegal parks and they use unpainted vehicles,” he said.
