By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCT) said it has suspended its on-street park and pay scheme in Abuja with immediate effect, following the judgment of an FCT High Court last Thursday declaring the scheme illegal.
A statement by the Special Assistant on Media to the FCT Minister, Nosike Ogbuenyi, yesterday in Abuja, said the Secretary of Transportation of the FCT Administration, Jonathan Achara Ivoke, has already dispatched a letter to the operators of the scheme informing them of the suspension.
The on-street park and pay scheme was conceived and launched by the FCT Administration for the purpose of effective traffic management and control in the Nation’s Capital City especially against the backdrop of its fast growth in vehicular population.
“The judgment delivered last Thursday, April 17, 2014 by Justice Peter Affen of FCT High Court declaring the scheme illegal was thus the culmination of the attacks launched against the new system by the forces resisting the new order.
“Meanwhile, the FCT Administration has set in motion the process for a review of the FCT Road Transport Regulation, 2005 to address the legal lacuna and to properly capture the on-street park and pay scheme in it including the incorporation of the extensive review already started by the administration. The review is expected to address perceived loopholes in the scheme.”
A Federal Capital Territory High Court had on Thursday, in a suit brought by an Abuja-based private savings and loan firm, declared the park and pay policy illegal.
Justice Peter Affen also ordered the immediate stoppage of the scheme.
