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From Paul Orude, Bauchi
The Bauchi State Road Traffic Agency (BAROTA) has arrested over 100 suspects for various traffic offences in the past three months.
The Chairman of the Agency, Air Commodore Tijjani Baba Gamawa, made the disclosure on Tuesday at his office while briefing journalists on the activities of the Agency since its inception.
Gamawa said that the suspects were arrested by BAROTA’s Committee for Enforcing Illegal Motor Parks.
The traffic offences include illegal parking in market or public places, alighting or picking passengers along the highway road instead of the designated parks among others.
Gamawa said the suspects were fined between N20,000 and N50,000 depending on the type of vehicle ranging from heavy trucks, vehicles or tricycles.
He thanked Governor Bala Mohammed for establishing BAROTA, saying it has brought sanity and order in the state.
He commended the efforts of the Agency, saying it has been able to relocate illegal motor parks to designated sites in the state.
‘All those people that used to drop passengers on the way, we have been able to curtail them and now put them in one place, that is the designated motor parks and with that we have been able to sanitise the state and improve our security situation,’ he said.
The retired air force officer maintained that the banned commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as Achaba in the state, was still in force.
‘Commercial motorcylists remain banned. There is no Achaba in Bauchi State, and we are bringing it to the notice of the good people of Bauchi State that that law is still in place and will be enforced immediately,’ he said
The BAROTA Chairman also warned citizens of the state to beware of boarding commercial tricylists, popularly known as KEKE NAPEP, who move around town with a spare ride.
He explained that investigations revealed that this category of tricylists were involved in criminal activities from attacking innocent passengers to looting goods of unsuspecting persons.
‘A lot of them will be moving with spare rider. We have noticed a lot of insecurity in the state because of that and as a result we are going to impound any tricycles operators that engage in that and fine them before taking them to court. It is against the law and nobody is allowed to go with spare driver,’ he warned.
He lamented that most of the commercial tricycle operators from neighboring states were not registered, and called on such operators to go and register in the state for security reasons if they want to continue operating in the state.
‘It is only in Bauchi that we enjoy peace within the north east. We will not just sleep and fold our arms and people will come in with insecurity to the state,’ he said.
