9 August 2020
The Vehicle Inspection Department in Cross River state has made three passionate appeals to the Office of the Head of Service (HoS) of the state NEGROIDHAVEN can say authoritatively.
These appeals which were made by the Chief Vehicle Inspection Officer, Engr Paul Bepeh, on Friday during the One Day Workshop for Cross River State Road Traffic Officers (VIO) themed: The Challenges of Motor Vehicle Administration and Enforcement in the Pandemic era (Covid-19) organised by the Department in Calabar the state capital bothered on provision of legal services, medical services and administrative convenience by the state government.
While addressing the HoS, Dr Chris Ita, Engr Bepeh said that the VIO is in dire need of a Lawyer and medical practitioner specially posted to the Department. He also added that it is high time the VIO is officially transferred to the Ministry of Transportation for smooth administration as against the traffic management agency it is presently domiciled in.
According to Bepeh, ‘I will also make a plea to the Head of Service.. It has come to a time where the Vehicle Inspection Department needs to have a trained VIO Lawyer… a Lawyer posted to the Department so that he we can train him as a VIO lawyer to be guiding us on most of the activities we are doing on the road.
‘I will also make a plea to the Head of Service to see how the Ministry of Health can come into a full synergy with the Vehicle Inspection Department, like the Commissioner mentioned, we have a full database for tricycle operators, riders in the state. So many persons are denied the license to ride motorcycle or tricycle because of the deficiency mostly with the eye. We have a unit in charge of driver testing.
‘Another request to the Head of Service is that, before the law is being passed, I will plead that there should be a formal movement of the Vehicle Inspection Department to the Ministry of Transportation so that the Directorate can take off from that angle like it is done in every other states in the federation. Incidentally, I am the chairman of VIOs Conference in Nigeria, and it is in my state that VIO is still under an agency which is saddled with only traffic management, which is abnormal to us.’
Engr. Bepeh disclosed that he was confident that the HoS will listen and consider his request.
The One Day work
shop dwelt on three topics: Security Challenges and Remedy in Motor Administration Service, Legal Implications with Charges in Motor Vehicle Administration and Enforcement, and Road Apprehension Methods and the Challenges in Motor Vehicle Administration and Enforcement.
The HoS while declaring the workshop open tasked the VIO to be as conscientious as possible especially in the management of Covid-19 pandemic: ‘we must be sure that people in vehicles, who cannot obey the social distancing are masked, we must endure that each vehicle has sanitiser and passengers’.
Present at the occasion were Dr Betta Edu the Commissioner for Health, Commissioner for Transport and Marine Vehicles, Hon. Oqua Edet Oqua, representative of the Cross River Director of State Security Service, representative of the Commissioner for Police in the state, and Mayor (Dr) Paul Odah Ebiala the state chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) who was resource person for the occasion.
