DON'T TEST THE WILL OF GOVERNMENT, OGUN WARNS TRANSPORTERS

 

By Yusuf Olatunji 

Transport Unions operating along the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway especially those in Isheri and Kara have been warned against daring the government by encroaching into recovered road setback on the Expressway by converting them to illegal parks.

This the government says amounts to testing the will of government despite several meetings and warnings with government officials on the need for them to leave the areas and go to government designated parks as the recovered setback from earlier  demolition of shanties and makeshift structures on them are set to be beautified to reflect the state's leading industrial status.

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Environment,Alhaji Farook Akintunde handed out the warning when he led the Ogun State Special Taskforce on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement to Isheri and Kara to warn the transporters on the implications of their illegal park to the aspiration of the state government on the project.

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Environment,Alhaji Farook Akintunde handed out the warning when he led the Ogun State Special Taskforce on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement to Isheri and Kara to warn the transporters on the implications of their illegal park to the aspiration of the state government on the project.

According to him, while traders have left the roadsides and moved to markets,it is surprising that the transport unions and their members have now moved their vehicles to the cleared areas despite the presence of government officials who are busy cleaning and landscaping the area in preparation for beautification of the area.

Akintunde said their action is not only annoying and obstructive but testing   the will of government to carry out its legitimate responsibility.

He said the state government will not fold its hands and watch the transporters constituting another nuisance in the axis through their illegal parks as this is as an affront to constituted authority.

 

"We are giving them the last warning.Any vehicle parked in the illegal parks or on roadsides along the axis will be impounded.While we are not adverse to them doing their business,they should do them in government designated parks and not constitute themselves to nuisance as nobody is above the law"

While assuring the general public that the  axis will soon wear a new look that befits Ogun State as the beautification will soon commence solicited for their cooperation to make the exercise a huge success.

Responding,the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers,Isheri- Olofin Branch, Alhaji Audu Dagwa while apologizing on behalf of its members assured the state government of their cooperation adding any of its members caught operating in the illegal park should be sanctioned.