Abuchi Onwumelu
Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra state has re-introduced and inaugurated Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) 10 years after it went comatose in the state.
Speaking during the inauguration in Awka, Obiano said the re-introduction of the organisation was to ensure road worthiness of vehicles and safety of motorists.
Obiano, who also donated three pick-up vans, four cars and a tow-truck to the organisation, regretted that there was disorderliness on roads, streets with abandoned vehicles littering the highways.
He said: “They are coming back after 10 years in the state because of the importance this administration attaches to security of lives and property.
“The next area of touch will be the motorcycle operators. We have insisted that every okada rider and his passenger must wear crash helmet or risk arrest.”
The governor said the first batch of 25 officers who were commissioned had been well trained to execute the job, adding that they were all graduates of mechanical engineering.
He warned that vehicles that were not road worthy would be impounded, adding that the state government would not relent in ensuring safety of lives and property.
In a remark, the Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Chuma Mbonu, while commending the governor for re-introducing the body, expressed the hope that road traffic accidents would reduce in the state.
“It is unfortunate that we are just re-establishing the agency in the state, but with their arrival, I belief that avoidable accidents will reduce on our roads,” he said.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Nwabuonu Ogbaji, said additional six vehicles and 15 VIO officers would soon be deployed to the organisation.
“What we want to achieve is to station at least three vehicles in the three senatorial zones of the state for effective and efficient service delivery,” he said.
Managing Director of Olis Warren Associates, a revenue consultant to the government, Mr Marcel Manafa, said processing units would be positioned across the major roads in the state.
This, he said, was to process expired documents of defaulting motor vehicle owners, stressing that the re-introduction of VIO would further strengthen revenue generation of the state government and ensures sanity in the driving culture in the state.
“Revenue due to government is now collected at source while all revenue linkages have been blocked.
“There is now data credibility, transparency, accountability in the automated system administration through the establishment of AUTOREG.”
