This is because, a walk through locations like Etta Agbor by Mr fans, some parts of Watt Market and Marian Market, officials of this department of government are conspicuously seen selling tickets to unsuspecting commercial road users who it appears have resided to fate in order to avoid any faceoff with the officials who by right are meant to be discharging their traditional duty of traffic management.
A chat with a commercial driver a few days ago revealed how helpless and confused commercial operators have been for quite sometime. According to the driver who simply gave his name as Bassey, they are in a cross road on which agency of government tickets they should buy since both the DOPT and CTRA are claiming to be the legitimate collectors of government revenue.
A peep into the different laws that established this two agencies of government shows a clear separation of functions. While by virtue of the provisions of Section Three of the Traffic Management Agency Law, the Department of Public Transportation is basically saddled with the responsibility of traffic control in the state and nothing more, the commercial transport Regulatory Agency functions as contained in section five of the CTRA law 2010, clearly centres on the control of commercial transportation in the state which gives the agency the powers to among other things coordinate all activities of commercial transport in the state towards generating revenue for the government.
With this law, it is evident that the Department of Public Transportation headed by a man who is supposed to know more about the duties and functions of the department being the pioneer Special Adviser, Chief Gabe Okulaja, is ignorant of the law or has a penchant for exploiting commercial road users right from when he was first appointed by the Liyel Imoke adminstration.
As recommended by the Cross River State House of Assembly committee on Transport and Marine Services chaired by Bishop Christian Agbor in a meeting of Transportation stakeholders, the need for the implementation of the traffic management agency law 2015 that will make the present DOPT the enforcement department of the agency has become more sacrosanct.
This in my mind, will put a stop to the unnecessary discrepancies on who is to do what, when and how between DOPT and CTRA and will further restrict the DOPT to its statutory duties of traffic management rather than ticket sellers.
The timely implementation of this law will also save the already battered public image of government especially among drivers, who it is clear are unhappy with such taxations as against the governor’s stance on non taxation of low income earners.
Government must realise that commercial road users in the state contribute significantly to the peace and tranquility the state is known for hence over taxing them will result to an upsurge of several crimes most of whom would be as a result of their inability to meet up with their daily returns, not forgetting that most of them drive higher purchased vehicles.
Finally, in a state where we have a governor who is passionate about alleviating the poverty of its people, I would rather want to see a scenario where government through CTRA float a deliberate scheme where commercial operators will be given vehicles, trycycles and motorcycles at a subsidies rate as a way of encouraging them and giving them a sense of belonging in the Cross River State project rather than over taxing them.
Richard Romanus
Is a Concerned Cross Riverian
