By Bayo Alabira Dutse
FInspector-General of Police, Chief of Army Staff , Chief of Naval Staff and the Commandant-General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have been called upon to warn their men against harassment and intimidation of NARTO members on the nation’s highways. National Chairman of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Alhaji Maiwada Danmalam, made the call while fi elding questions from reporters yesterday in Dutse, the Jigawa state capital. Lamenting what he tagged as unnecessary harassment and intimidation of his members on the Nigerian highways by the combined task force of the police, Navy, the Army and the Nigeria security and Civil Defence Corps is alarming.
He further advised the IGP and the other security chiefs to educate their men on how the transportation system was conducted by NARTO members across the country. “Whenever they stop our members on the highways, they ask of the waybill, and even when given, they still ask where the products would be taken to with a view to further intimidating our members. “Wherever we load our trucks with the petroleum products, everything is included in the waybill – where we loaded, the quantity, the quality, where the product is taken to and the owner of the truck. Then what is the problem,” he said. Danmalam urged them to respect the profession “because transportation is one of the sectors that improve economy everywhere in the world.” “In view of this, our members must be allowed to carry out their businesses freely.”
