Abia Task Force: Waging War Against Illegal Motor Parks In Aba

Abia State Taskforce on Environment and Allied Matters appears to have won the war to relocate transport unions and private motor operators to the Aba main motor parks. UGOCHUKWU ALARIBE reports.

For anybody who visited the area spanning Milverton Avenue, Park, Hospital, St. Michaels and Pound road junctions lying along Asa road in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State in the past months, it could be likened to a trip through hell. It was always a difficult journey to pass through the aforementioned roads with its litany of human and vehicular traffic arising from the siting of motor parks at every available space. Those who were patient to ply the area could spend about 30 minutes for the distance between Abia Line network motor park and General Post Office on Asa which is less than three minutes.

Then, motorists could pick and drop passengers on the road without caring a hoot about the harm they cause to other road users. Looking at the ugly situation which concentrated around the city centre, it depicted the picture of a lawless town where anyone could claim authority to operate motor parks and cared less about the environment or safety.

Before the Taskforce came, motorists and even pedestrians avoided the area between Aba South Council Secretariat and Pound / Asa road junction due to the traffic gridlock. Even residential areas were not spared of the menace of these illegal motor parks as transport unions converted every available space to loading bays.

The Aba main motor park located within the vicinity was being used by only few transporters while others preferred to load by the roadsides, private residence, frontage of shops and surrounding filling stations. They were used to running away when the men of the Taskforce approached the area.

It was a game of wits between the Taskforce headed by Chief Awa Udonsi Agwu, a retired Captain of the Nigerian Army, and the transport unions as well as the private operators. Several efforts made by the Task Force to appeal to the transporters to relocate to the Aba main park were not heeded as the latter insisted that the Aba main motor park is too small to accommodate them.

Some of the transport operators who look to have heeded the call only dash to the motor park when they sight men of the Task Force in the neighbourhood, only to return to the roadside when the team leaves the area. The Chairman of the Task Force also accused two particular transport companies, including Bicoz Mass Transit, of opposing government's directives to return transport operators to the Abia main motor parks.

On August 22, 2013, a group of motor park workers said to belong to private operators embarked on a protest against the efforts of the Task Force to enforce the relocation to the Aba motor park. The protesters, who bore placards which read, 'Capt. Awa must go'; ' Don't chase us from where we feed our families'; 'Aba motor park is too small to accommodate transporters', among others, barricaded the area between Milverton Junction and Aba Line Network motor park on Asa road. The situation was only brought under control when a team of soldiers stormed the area. The following day, not less than five police patrol teams as well as a group of soldiers were stationed around the area to ensure compliance.

In an interview with Weekend Champion on the allegation that he has been inciting transporters not to relocate to the Aba motor park in defiance of government order, Proprietor of Bicoz Mass Transit, Chief Ifeanyichukwu Anaele, said he supported government's efforts to relocate transporters to the motor park, but insisted that the Aba main motor park is too small to accommodate the operators and called on the government to provide a befitting loading in the city.

'I'm not against what the government is doing to make transporters use the Aba motor park, but the problem is that the motor park is too small to accommodate all the motor unions, not to talk of private operators. This motor park was built more than 90 years ago and cannot accommodate transporters in this modern age. I'm not supporting anybody to cause problem but this is my loading bay; I have my Corporate Affairs Certificate and authority from the Ministry of Transport and Aba South local government permitting me to operate a mass transit park here.

'But with all these, the Taskforce has been terrorising us. They said we should move out of this park and that we are causing traffic jam. Where do they want us to operate from? We are far from the road and cannot obstruct traffic. Capt. Awa wants to remove me from feeding my family and I have 52 workers on my payroll. If they say transport companies must vacate here, government has a duty to provide a befitting loading bay for them. When you said all the transport companies must enter the park, Young Shall Grow Motors and other Luxury bus operators, it cannot work,' he said.

Speaking to Weekend Champion on the efforts to make the motor unions relocate to the Aba motor park, Chairman of the Task Force, Capt. Agwu (rtd) said government would spare no effort to restore the original master plan of Aba, which has highly been distorted. Sais he: 'The motor parks littered everywhere in Aba constitute a great deal of nuisance. Most of these illegal motor parks are situated on roads, drainages and sanitary lanes and don't have the requisite facilities to function as a motor park. How can a motor park function without convenience? You can agree with me that motor Park wherever they are sited, produce huge amount of refuse and cause traffic jams. Government would no longer tolerate this ugly situation. The Task Force is determined to enforce the relocation to motor parks because the master plan of Aba never included the siting of motor parks at unapproved places.

Through their motor transport unions; NURTW, RTEAN, NARTO and Cooperative, we have been appealing to the transport operators to relocate to the Aba main park. From our deduction, these transporters prefer to load by the roadside, perhaps they make more profit there, but government is poised to return sanity to Aba.'

He lamented that many motor parks in the commercial city are highly underutilised leading to the over concentration of transport operators at Milverton Avenue, Asa, St. Michaels, Hospital and Park roads. 'Most transporters have abandoned the approved motor parks in every part of Aba. Gov. Theodore Orji recently built the Osisioma Ngwa motor park with modern facilities. As I'm talking to you now, that park is highly underutilised. Another one is at the Burrow pit/Enyimba motor park along the Expressway. There are Alaoji Ugwunagbor, Cemetery, and Ehere Ogbor Hill motor parks. We are appealing to these motor unions to use government approved motor parks.', Agwu further said.

The Task Force chairman faulted claims by some of the transport operators that the Aba main park is not large enough to accommodate them. He assured that the motor park is built to accommodate more than 1,000 buses at a given time and accused some of the transport operators of converting the Aba main motor park to a garage where they park disused vehicles. According to him, 'a motor park is meant for the loading and off loading of vehicles, not to park abandoned ones. Some of these operators have converted the motor park to a garage where they wash and maintain vehicles. Now that some of these abandoned vehicles are being removed, you can see that there are enough spaces for buses to load and off-load.'

As if aware of the opposition the Task Force would face in relocating the transporters to motor parks, Capt. Awa said: 'Since the year, we have been working in Aba but when we delved into the issue of stopping transporters from using illegal motor parks, we knew that it would not be easy because of the volume of money available to these transporters.

When our correspondent visited the Aba main motor park on Asa road, it was a beehive of activities as most transport operatives were seen loading and off loading their vehicles. Speaking to Weekend Champion, officials of the major transport unions such as the State Secretary of RTEAN, Comrade Philip Nwaigbo; Chairman, Aba South chapter of NARTO, Mr. Evidence Obi and an executive member of Cooperative Motor Union, Elder Okechi Ufomba, said they were in support of Abia State government's efforts to relocate transport operators to the Aba main motor park.

Despite the modest gains recorded by the Task Force in its bid to clear the area of illegal motor park, there are still several challenges confronting it. One, the Task Force must ensure round-the-clock monitoring of transporters, particularly on weekends. Sources told Weekend Champion that the transporters have perfected the art of returning to their former locations in the filling stations and roadsides on weekends.

According to a town planner, who declined to have his name in print, if the gains of the present efforts must be sustained, the Task Force must constitute a monitoring team who will make regular visits to roads and streets to ensure compliance, even on weekends. 'Residents of Aba can be very stubborn. If you demolish an illegal structure in a place, before you come back, don't be surprised to see the same structure on its feet again. That is the Aba man for you. So, if the Task Force wants to succeed in keeping transporters permanently stationed at the Aba motor park, it must be up and doing, if not, it will still be the same thing with what previous Task Force have done without success,' he said.

Another challenge is the issue of facilities at the Aba motor park. Most of the transporters complain that the conveniences at the park are not functioning and appealed to the government to look in the situation to make the motor park conducive for the to operate from. A staff one of the transport companies who gave his name as Anayo, seems to believe that the Task Force would soon get weary of enforcing the order and would soon allow them to return to their former location as they made more money from the latter. To them, government hardly sustains such efforts as if the activities of successive Task Force on motor parks are taken into account.

For now, the Task Force has been able to stop sporadic siting of motor parks at all corners of the city as well as in residential areas. It is also to its credit that transporters now load at designated points while indiscriminate parking of vehicles on roads has become a thing of the past. The area now wears a new look.

Again, the Task Force has also enhanced the free movement of people and vehicles. The perennial traffic gridlocks around Asa roads/ Milverton roads have disappeared. It is now a usual sight for combined team of security agencies to patrol the area between Aba South Council Secretariat and the Milverton junction along Asa road to stop transport operators from loading at the roadside and the filling stations in the area. How long the present effort will be sustained remains a matter of conjecture.

Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor
Executive Director
Foundation For Environmental Rights,Advocacy & Development(FENRAD)

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