Cross River State House of Assembly Speaker, John Gaul Lebo said, the revenue drive of the Department of Public Transport (DOPT) and Commercial Transport Regulatory Agency (CTRA) is not their core mandate.
The Speaker, Lebo stated this when he hosted a delegation of the Unified Taxi Drivers Association of Cross River State, UTDA-CRS, led by chairman, Pastor Bassey Okon saying “It is unfortunate that both CTRA and DOPT have now turned themselves into revenue generating agencies rather than the regulatory agencies that they were created to be.”
According to crossriverwatch.com, the speaker also disclosed that the 8th assembly of the state was poised to reposition the transport sector in the state as one of its core mandate is to carry out a transport sector reform that will consider the divergent views in the industry to develop a transport system that is both convenient and comfortable to all.
Meanwhile, Pastor Okon had earlier called on the assembly to aid in the arrest of issues faced by commercial drivers which includes multiple taxation and alleged harassment by government agencies in Cross River State.
Okon also clearly stated that the harassment has become a daily routine and they have been left in the mercy of revenue generating agencies and departments whose operations have been marred with irregularities and complaints and called for drastic action to be taken as “Our source of livelihood is been threatened especially by military personnel driving ‘off colour’ taxis.”
