Participants at a public hearing organised by the Kogi State House of Assembly have called for the scrapping of the Kogi State Transport Management Agency (KOTRAMA) following its “questionable” style of operation in recent times.
The stakeholders who spoke at a public hearing/investigation conducted by the state House of Assembly Committee on Judiciary, hinged their calls on unlawful fines it imposed on operators were made
The committee examined 25 areas of the agency ‘s constitutional provisions which include the law establishing it, the Constitution, power to control traffic, trial and imposition of fines on traffic offenders, amongst others.
Chairman of the Committee, Mr Cosmas Atabor, said there was need to examine KOTRAMA’s activities and its constitutional powers through separate memoranda by the stakeholders, to correct all abnormalities.
A Kogi-based Lawyer, Mr Dele Suru accused of duplicating the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) functions imposing fines on traffic offenders and generating revenues.
He said the FRSC law is above that of the state and that FRSC fines imposed on traffic offenders were usually collected on the spot.
According to him, “the state could legislate more on it since it was not a bad law that should be thrown away but “must be repealed and reenacted or reintroduced in the state House of Assembly.”
A civil right activist, Mr Idris Ozovehe, asked why revenue generation had been prioritised than the safety that it was designed for.
He said private vehicle owners were being intimidated even when the agency is only proposed in law and not yet in existence.
“Looking at Schedule 22 of the proposed law with which it is arresting and convicting traffic offenders, there is no record of the total number of convictions.
“Today, everyone points to KOTRAMA as being capable of igniting security challenge in the state with its faulting and embarrassing activities, ” he warned.
The Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Baron Okwoli, admitted that Kogi had a peculiar case of being at the cross roads over the agency.
