Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Transport and Petroleum Resources, Mr. Orman Esin, has said he is more focused on giving the Ministry a new facelift and not bothered by those who engage in smear campaigns against his personality.
Briefing newsmen recently, Esin pointedly said those who benefited from the largesse and irregularities that had before now marred the Ministry’s revenue base are trying to frustrate government efforts in rebranding the transport sector in the state.
His words: “In the transport sector, there are a lot of people who are determined to frustrate good works, but if I be sent from God to this Ministry, I will put certain things right. I’ll do everything humanly possible to ensure that this Ministry is reformed. I want to leave this Ministry far better than how I met it.
“We have a lot of detractors in the sector, but I want to reiterate that I am determined to work and get things properly done. The masses are the people that we are focused on. If the operators are happy, government is happy. Some set of people think that they’re lords, they have the capacity to frustrate the efforts of government, that is one thing that we will totally abhor and I say that with strong words”.
According to him, “the detractors are people who have groups of persons who extort money from operators in the state. We’ve had issues of multiple taxation in the transport sector in this state and in the process of trying to correct that anomaly, certain people think they can blackmail the man sitting at the helm of affairs, to try to get their way back? I’m not really interested in detractors, because they will only distract you. I’m more focused on ensuring that the Ministry moves forward and in the same way contribute towards moving Akwa Ibom State forward”.
Speaking further on the reformation activities of the Ministry, the transport boss revealed that his administration is creating a sustainable and functional framework towards ensuring that the operators comply with government directives to give way for a functional transport system in Akwa Ibom State.
Worried by the humongous number of complaints received by the Ministry on the nefarious activities of the hitherto Tricycle task-force, the Commissioner hinted that the Ministry has since disbanded the task-force and called on operators to be weary of those who may be hiding under the cloak of Tricycle Task-force to perpetrate criminal activities in the state. Mr. Esin also revealed that the Ministry had also established a Compliance and Monitoring Unit, which according to him are made up of men of integrity who have gone through the scrutiny of the DSS and Police to oversee compliance by transport operators in the state.
He said: “Some people used the task-force to carry out criminal activities in the state. People were bullied, harassed and manhandled. That actually portrayed the government in a very bad light. And what I decided to do was to reorganize the task-force by first changing the brand name from task-force to Compliance and Monitoring Unit because the existing name had already been smeared and soiled”.
“We made sure that all the officers pass through DSS screening and the DSS had forwarded the report of those that were successful to the State Police Command for documentation and clearance before handing them over to us for training. We did that successfully and we have the men on the streets to ensure that things are done properly”, he added.
On the recent declaration of tax free days to Tricyclists in the state, the Honourable Commissioner revealed that the idea was to motivate the operators for proper compliance and enhanced revenue generation.
“What we did was to see how to motivate keke operators by declaring, Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays as tax free days for them which are one of the things that they have been yearning for since we started operations in this state. Of course you can see how happy they are. When you give them these incentives, you can raise the bar of compliance and that translates to higher revenue for the government”.
Reacting to the transport insurance policy of the state government, Mr Esin said government is keen on providing support to transport operators in the case of accidents and other life threatening situations.
Taking a swipe at the Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN), Akwa Ibom State Chapter, who have before now dragged the Ministry to Court over issues of selling tickets to their members, the former Council boss maintained that it is the constitutional right of the state government to collect revenue from all mechanically propelled machines and wondered how TOAN could try to usurp the constitutional right of the government. He called on the Union to embrace peace and partner the State government to move the transport sector forward.
Earlier, the Commissioner had interfaced with Tricyclists in the state, where he reiterated the state government efforts in rebranding and synergizing with relevant stakeholders in the transport sector.
Surprisingly, the State Vice Chairman of TOAN, Comrade Ifiok Etim, who stormed the venue of parley in concert with other members of the Union, said he was glad that their yearnings has finally seen the light of the day. He pledged their unwavering support to the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel and restated that the Union was firmly behind the Honourable Commissioner and his reforms in the transport sector in Akwa Ibom State.
