Rivers state government had two months ago banned keke NAPEP on the major roads in Port Harcourt. Enforcement task force was this morning seen along Iwofe road, Ada Road, Agip road, etc. enforcing the ban. This video was captured this morning as the enforcement team begins work.
Given conspicuous traffic hazards on some roads in Rivers State, the State government has taken a bold step to impose a total ban on the use of tricycles popularly called “keke NAPEP” on major roads in the Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas.
This was contained in a statement by the State Commissioner for Transport, Mr Soni Ejekwu, in Port Harcourt. The decision followed the observed devil-may-care attitude that seems to portray the peculiarities of keke operators along some major roads and the serious endangering of the lives of Rivers people.
Ejekwu, invoking Section 74 Sub-Section 1 (h) of the Rivers State Road Traffic Law No. 6 of 2009, prohibited the tricycles operators from plying Trans Amadi Road from Port Harcourt Zoo to Garrison, the entire Aba Road, Ada George Road, Ikwerre Road and old Port Harcourt township. Others are Oginigba-Artillery Road, Eastern Bypass, Oil Mill-Elelenwo, Old Aba Road, Iloabuchi, Elekahia, Gulf Estate and Waja to Nkpogu. Directing that the order be enforced immediately, the Transport commissioner added a caution that any tricycle running within the affected areas would be impounded and the driver sanctioned. He said: “Any keke NAPEP found operating in these areas would be confiscated and its owner prosecuted.”
We hold that crime and safety considerations simply stand at the centre of this law. This is because the State government has the primary obligation to protect the lives of people within its jurisdiction. It is true that keke tricycles are not as safe as they should be on Port Harcourt roads.
No responsible government will fold its arms and watch tricycle operators skate on thin ice by jeopardising the lives of its people. One life is exceedingly important than all the economic benefits to be made if keke operators were authorised to proceed on major roads. Though we understand that investments are overly critical, keeping people alive and safe is more pertinent. That is why The Tide firmly backs the measures taken to restrict tricycles to the designated inner-city roads and keep them off the highways. Clearly, the operators of this mode of commercial transport show no deference for traffic and road use regulations and, therefore, actively aggravate gridlocks in the metropolis.
So, there is a great need for the State government to appoint some officials of the Transport Ministry or engage the police to fully implement the law and possibly eliminate favouritism or corruption during its enforcement. In other words, the law has to be executed round the clock to frustrate more and more persons from taking up similar enterprises on the prohibited routes. There are those who assume that the measure is far-reaching and beyond a norm. The truth is that the action of the government is not unprecedented in the country. For example, the Abuja city authorities have since outlawed such vehicles. Likewise, successive governments of Imo State have prohibited tricycles as well as Lagos State, among others.
But we must emphasise that a viable alternative and practical means of transport be promptly put in place on the affected roads to reduce the impacts of the restriction considerably. Failure to do so might not only result in the attainability of disproportionate success but is likely to cause an outright bankruptcy of the policy. Nonetheless, for the most part, the strict controls on tricycles on specific roads in the “Garden City” are vital even though they are incompatible with many at the moment. We have to understand that there is a high velocity of crime in the State aided by tricycles that are often used as get-away means by criminals. This renders the law unavoidable. This is an arduous task that must be achieved if Port Harcourt is to become the kind of city Rivers people so much desire.
Port Harcourt is unarguably one of the most significant business cities in Nigeria and unquestionably in West Africa. The more habitable it is, the more it can attract businesses and ancillary activities to make it thrive. The current undisciplined behaviour of most of its inhabitants, especially in traffic matters, public hygiene, and sanitation, all contribute to making the “Garden City” less glamorous than it should be, hence, the necessity for restrictions.
If there is a State that should be well structured, well organised, and strict in its traffic regulations, it is Rivers State with two seaports, an international airport, a few million in population, and home to diverse multi-trillion naira businesses. As can be seen, Port Harcourt ought to be like a 21st-century megacity and this demands that laws controlling traffic be made and decisively enforced. It is rather sad that some past governors of the State failed woefully to limit the operations of tricycles. During their reigns, tricycle operators held sway on our major roads while they remained helpless and proved consistently inconsistent in keeping them away. The Wike administration should reverse this trend by making it a top priority to sustain the ban.
In the circumstances, we deem it entirely appropriate for the government to give careful thought to a total and more sustainable elimination of all undesirable transport modes in Rivers State principally motorcycles and tricycles by collaborating with the private sector to introduce portable and affordable buses and cars
