By Jude Atupulazi
In a move to improve the traffic situation at Aroma, Awka, the Anambra State Police Command in partnership with the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority, ACTDA has intensified the sensitization campaign against blocking of roads at Aroma.
The Divisional Police Officer, Central Police Station CPS Awka, Mr Vena Leelea, who led the campaign, Tuesday, warned tricycle and bus drivers against the blockage of roads at Aroma and other places in the state.
He said the governor was unhappy with the activities of the drivers and had directed the sensitization campaign before enforcement.
Leelea said that Aroma was the three arms zone of the state and must be kept neat and decent, noting that anything short of sanity would attract sanctions.
‘We are talking to you now at your various parks to do the right thing before it becomes a fight between the drivers and police.
‘We want to have a decent and serene environment in Awka as the state capital.
‘This is a three arms zone of the state and it habours all the three arms of the government: the Executive, House of Assembly and the Judiciary; even the Federal and State Secretariats.
‘In fact, Awka is a transit city to many states in the country. We want sanity and we want you to help us to maintain the sanity the state deserved.
‘Now, we are begging you to do the right and nobody should blame us when we start enforcement. Let us now do the right things and move the state forward,’ Leelea said.
The Managing Director of ACTDA, Ossy Onuko, represented by the Deputy Commander, Sir Ukachukwu Okonkwo, said the agency was committed to maintaining sanity and decency in the state capital.
According to him, the agency discovered that most of the drivers who blocked roads were the bad boys who were not even genuine drivers.
He said, ‘From today, we will be having a special enforcement squad to be stationed at Aroma all round, to man the activities of hawkers, beggars and those drivers creating problems in the city.’
Onuku said the core mandate of the agency was to maintain clean Awka and that was why they were ensuring there was sanity and decency.
The ACTDA MD said that they knew those drivers who blocked roads and disclosed that they were moving against them to ensure sanity in the state capital.
‘We are going to expand our work, we are now going to work into late hours. We will go after the traders on the roads and under bridges; those drivers blocking roads and even the beggars.
‘This is the three arms zone of the state; we cannot tolerate this madness anymore,’ he warned.
A human rights activist and coordinator of Keke drivers in Anambra State, Comrade Osita Obi, commended the police and ACTDA for taking up the challenge of securing the state capital for good.
According to him, Aroma-Awka was a peculiar place that needed special attention, even as he noted that all arms of the state government were located around Aroma.
He said that Aroma needed to be properly guarded to be orderly and decent, even as he however said that those creating problems at Aroma were not the drivers but a group of cultists in Awka.
Obi called on the police to take special note of those boys, who, he said, were bent on creating problems around Aroma.
He said those boys did not go into parks but preferred to load on the roads, thereby obstructing traffic and free movement.
He pleaded with the DPO to take special note of that menace and mobilize his men adequately to tackle them.
‘We don’t want anybody dead; we want Awka to be clean, decent and calm. I got a report this morning that these boys came to the park to force the drivers to pay money,’ Obi disclosed.
