Delta Assembly urges Okowa to Direct DESTMA to clear broken down vehicles from highways

Vanguard reports that the Delta State House of Assembly has urged the state governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, to direct the Director-General of the state Traffic Management Agency, DESTMA, to urgently liaise with the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, and all other relevant agencies to clear all broken down vehicles and trucks from the highways in the state, to check the increasing cases of accidents and loss of lives.

Moving the motion under matters of urgent public importance, which was seconded by Mr. Reuben Izeze, and unanimously adopted by the House, the Member representing Aniocha South constituency, Ms Angela Nwaka, noted that abandoned vehicles and trucks had caused several accidents resulting in loss of lives in the state, Vanguard reports.

According to Vanguard, Nwaka, who also frowned at indiscriminate parking of vehicles on roads across the state, said the motion was aimed  at preventing “road accidents and loss of lives which have become a regular occurrence particularly at night.”

Noting that road transportation was the most common means of transportation in Nigeria, she said indiscriminate parking of trucks, trailers and other vehicles had continued to pose serious danger to motorists and other road users.

Insisting that the situation was more noticeable on the Asaba-Benin Expressway, particularly by the Mariam Babangida Junction; Bonsac and Ogbor-Osisi Market, Nwaka said: “One of our royal fathers, the Obi of Issele-Uku and a government official, Mr Sunday Ofili, lost their lives when the vehicle they were travelling in ran into a broken down truck along Benin-Asaba expressway. Sometime in August 2015, 15 persons died when the bus conveying them rammed into a 22-wheeler trailer parked along Ubulu-Okiti junction on Asaba-Benin expressway.

Also in November 2015, over 17 persons lost their lives when a heavy duty truck crashed into the bus they were travelling in while it was parked on the road side by NNPC Mega Staion.”

Source: Vanguard