| The 200 Peugeot vehicles acquired by the Rivers State Government to ease intra-city transportation are gradually disappearing from the streets of Port Harcourt , the state capital.
Investigations revealed that contrary to the directives given to the beneficiaries to restrict their operations to the state capital, the operators prefer to deploy the cars for their private businesses. Fifty of the 307 air-conditioned cars were dedicated to the memory of Stella, the late wife of President Olusegun Obasanjo. They were to charge N10 per drop while 150 others were to run as commercial cabs charging prevailing rates per drop. It was gathered that because of the comfort provided by the posh vehicles, the owners use them for charter services in and outside the state. Most of them, it was learnt had been leased out to oil servicing companies. The diversion of the vehicles has created a serious problem for commuters who wait endlessly at bus stops for them. Many of the beneficiaries, who are also top politicians in the state and their supporters, keep the vehicles in their garages despite several warning by the state government to deploy them for public use. A commuter, who gave her name as Mercy, lamented on Monday that the vehicles were not being used to convey the suffering masses in the state as intended by the government. Mercy, a student of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, said, �What we see is that the drivers always wind up and drive away with nobody or a single passenger inside. They do not even stop at the bus-stop to pick any passengers.� Irked by the action of the beneficiaries, the state governor, Dr. Peter Odili, has ordered all of them to report with the vehicles in his office on Friday (today). The commissioner for Transport, Chief Glory Emeh, confirmed in a telephone interview with our correspondent that the governor would meet the beneficiaries in a bid to regulate the use of the cars. |
Oct202006