Modalities are in top shape for the take-off of the Imo State Traffic Management Agency.

The Agency, when fully birthed, will help maintain sanity on the roads in Imo State and reduce the man hour lost every day to needless traffic jam caused by irresponsible driving by motorists.

At the regular weekly Imo State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Hope Uzodimma which started on Wednesday, March 24 and ended Thursday, March 25, 2021, the Council approved that some members of the moribund Imo Civil Guard be co-opted into the Imo State Traffic Management Agency arrangement.

The Council took the decision based on memo to it presented by the Commissioner for Transportation, Chief Rex Anonobi on how to end perennial gridlock on the roads in Owerri metropolis in particular and Imo State in general.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Declan Emelumba said: “The Imo State Traffic Management Agency will soon take off and unlike in the past when their operation was limited to Owerri alone, the new body will now cover the three zones of the State - Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu.”

The Commissioner added that Council approved the recruitment and conversion of initial 200 of the former Civil Guard members for the pilot programme take-off, hoping that the outcome of the pilot exercise will determine how best to utilize other members in other areas of need.

According to Emelumba, Council also noted that the former Eastern Palm University (EPU) has been fully recovered and will henceforth be known and called Kingsley Ozurumba Mbadiwe University, Ideato South, emphasising that the University is no longer associated with any village.

The Commissioner for Information, who was flanked by the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Physical Planning, Barr. Enyinnaya Onuegbu and the Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to the Governor, Mr. Oguwike Nwachuku, explained that Council also directed that in spite of the yearly rain that seems to have set in, the massive road construction in the State should not abate, especially as it concerns the Naze/Nekede/Ihiagwa/Obinze axis and other various road maintenance activities going on across the state.

He said it was heart-warming hearing from the Commissioner for Works, Barr. Raph Nwosu, that all the contractors handling the roads are optimistic that the rains will not adversely affect their work.

Finally, Emelumba said that the Council frowned at the non-payment of Ground Rent by institutions and establishments and that the failure to pay, henceforth, will be taken very seriously by the government.

To actualise the above, he further explained, “there is plan to put up an internal mechanism to ensure that all concerned comply with the State directive as this will go a long way in boasting the economy of the state.”

•PHOTO: From L-R; Hon Oguwuike Nwachukwu, CPS/Media Adviser to Governor Uzodimma, Hon Declan Emelumba, Commissioner for Information and Strategy and Chief Barr Enyinna Onuegbu, Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Physical Planning Addressing Newsmen after the Exco meeting at the EXCO Chambers, Owerri

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