The Cross River state government has said it was introducing security numbers for all cabs operating in the state for proper documentation and identification in the face of the security challenge in the state.
The Commissioner for Transport, Oqua Oqua, who disclosed this Friday, during a chat with our reporter, said all illegal motor parks across the metropolis had also been shut, and that measure had been put in place to ensure a smooth transport operation in the state.
Members of the Unified Taxi Drivers Association in Calabar metropolis had, early in the week, embarked on a peaceful protest over what they saw as extortions allegedly carried out by some government agencies.
In his reaction, Oqua said: “We had stakeholders meeting and we all agreed that there is a need to stabilise the transportation subsector in the state. It is not all about the transporter but also the safety of his passengers. Some motorists are associated with some criminal activities like robbery and kidnappings. Intelligence reports available to us indicated that minibuses, cabs and even keke are used to perpetrate all types of criminalities.
“We have agreed that for every taxi, buses and even keke (tricycle), there must be security numbers boldly marked on such vehicles for easy identification. This is in collaboration with the office of the state security adviser. We will do proper documentation. This documentation will have a database in the ministry of transport.”
On the outcry over illegal levies/ticketing, Oqua said since governments all over the world “do not operate at cross purposes, anything about levies on low income earners in the state has been brought to an end, adding that some ticket sellers and levies enforcement teams had been arrested.
