Enugu plans committee to regulate commercial bike operators, moves to acquire CCB hqtrs
June 4, 2008
The Enugu State government has completed plans to set up a committee to monitor the operations of the commercial motor-cycle operators, popularly known as “Okada’ in the state, to ensure that they comply with the time of their operation.

The State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Mr. Chuks Ugwuoke, announced this while briefing the press at the end of the State Executive Council meeting in Enugu.

Mr. Ugwuoke said that already, the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Nduka Ikeyi and the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Suleiman Fakai, had been mandated to see to the inauguration of the committee and its effective operations.

The commissioner recalled that in the state, there is a law prohibiting operators of commercial motorcycles from operating beyond seven O’clock in the evening and not earlier than six O’clock in the morning each day.

He said that the committee was put in place to help enforce the law since it had come to the notice of the Executive Council that a good number of commercial bike operators in the state were now flouting the laws and also aid criminals to commit crime and robbery.

Also, according to the commissioner, the state government has commenced negotiations with financial institutions for the purpose of reviving and reactivating the State owned transport company.

The approval by the Exco for the negotiation to commence, he explained,  was necessitated by the need for government to have a viable transport company and in keeping with present administration’s determination to revive and reactivate all her comatose industries.

Mr. Ugwuoke, at the briefing which was attended by the State head of service, Mr. Albert Edoga, commissioner for commerce and Industry, Chief J. C. Udeh Commissioner, and his water resources counterpart, Engr. Emecca Ani, announced that the state government had commenced action towards the acquisition of the former head office building of the defunct Cooperative and Commerce Bank (CCB) along Okpara Avenue, Enugu.

Explaining the reason behind the bid to acquire the office complex, the commissioner for commerce and industry, Mr. Ude, said that government’s plan is to provide office accommodation there on lease for the proposed zonal office of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, other federal agencies and organizations, as well as some international bodies.

The executive council also approves the payment of N76.6 million naira counterpart contributions to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, for cassava mosaic disease project.

According to Mr. Ugwuoke the disease is a major treat to cassava production in the south-east and south-south zones and as a result, government has decided to pay the money to ensure that the state benefited from the services of the establishment.

In his words, “payment of this counterpart fund is to ensure that we benefit from the gains of the establishment and also attack that disease at the roots. Enugu State government believes that payment of this money is in order to ensure that cassava production is not effected in any way.”

On the five hundred thousand metric tones of rice being imported by the federal government at the cost of over eight billion naira, the commissioner assured citizens of the state that once the product arrived the country, their own share will be sold to them at very affordable prices.