Traffic And Indiscipline Management Agency of Abia State – TIMAAS has called law enforcement agents to immediately fish out the Tricycle operators who attacked and destroyed the operational vehicles of the Agency.
This is coming even as the Deputy General Manager of TIMAAS, Mr. Smart Uwakwe, has recounted the incident that led to the destruction of his vehicle and the operational vehicles of the Agency the Tricycle operators popularly known as Keke.
In a statement personally signed by him, Mr. Uwakwe said he received a call from the Umuahia Chapter Chairman of one of the Tricycle Unions in Abia state, ATRIWA, Mr. Chinomso who called to plead on behalf of their member who drove against traffic (ONE WAY) and was apprehended by TIMAAS officials on duty.
“As at the time he called, our workers had already issued a government ticket to the erring Keke Rider and I told him that I can’t alter a government ticket, that it is already beyond me.
“Few minutes later, Barr. St. Moses Ogbonna, the State Chairman of the same ATRIWA also called me over the same issue and I also explained my predicament to him, that the office had already issued a government ticket to the offender, and he said I should find a way to assist him,” he said.
According to him, they wanted him to alter the ticket the Agency had issued which he was not ready to oblige.
Continuing, he said, “Few minutes after dropping that call, another call came in from my men on duty, informing me that ATRIWA executives and Keke riders are holding them hostage, ordering us to release the Keke in our custody or else they will not release our men. That they had blocked Isi-gate and the adjourning streets and are mobbing my workers and harassing other road users.
One of the personal oaths I took is to never abandon my men in the field, through thick and thin.
“So I drove down to Isi-gate, packed my Car and started engaging their Executive.”
He explained that when he sensed the pandemonium and the chaos that could emanate from the face-off and with the permission of his superiors, “we released the said Tricycle to the executives of ATRIWA, after they had agreed to abide by Government laid down rules of obeying traffic rules and regulations which will also Forestall the spread of the COVID-19 Virus.”
The statement noted that every effort made to address them as a body and create some awareness on safety measures did not yield any fruit as there was some “serious mob action and physical assault on me and my men.”
He said they decided leave the scene after their Executives assured them that they would work on their members to be law abiding through this period the world is facing a Global health crisis.
According to him, he was surprised when he got to where he parked his car to see that the 4 tyres of the car and those of their two operational vehicles had been deflated.
“We did not quarrel or raise eye brows about it, we saw it as a mob action knowing that what really they wanted from us was just a little reaction for them to justify what would have been a blood bath and the lynching of my men.
Again we left the scene in search of Vulcanizers, thinking that they had done their worst, only to return with the Vulcanizers to see my car and the 2 operational vehicles in Ruins.
“They had shattered all the glasses, carted away valuables in my car and which I am yet to ascertain, took away the batteries, spare tires, Jack’s and the doors of the mini buses my men use as operational vehicles,” the statement explained.
Mr. Uwakwe expressed regret that Tricycle operators would constitute themselves into such a nuisance to the society to the extent of assaulting and molesting Government workers on official duty and called for the arrest of the perpetrators of the dastardly act.
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