He Oyo State The Road Transport Management Authority has denied an allegation by the president of the Council of Maritime Trucking Unions and Associations that the agency has extorted money from the owner of a downed truck.
OYRTMA said this in reaction to a post circulating on social media alleging that the Agency demanded payment of a fine of N850,000.00 on a private account.
In a statement signed by the agency’s CEO, Dr. Akin Fagbemi, on Friday, OYRTMA described the publication as a distorted narrative of facts and spurious accusations that represent only a figment of the writer’s imagination.
In said publication, it was reported that Adeyinka Aroyewun, who was identified as the national president of the Council of Maritime Truck Unions and Associations (COMTUA), sent a letter to His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde, Executive Governor of Oyo State raising insinuated allegations that OYRTMA demanded payment of the sum of Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand Nairas to a private account only.
The public may remember the uproar generated by the prolonged abandonment of a gigantic, fully loaded container along the Efunsetan Roundabout, Challenge, Ibadan, the state capital for over three weeks despite frantic efforts by OYRTMA to evacuate the item. considering the immense danger it represented to the environment. and the motoring public. It can also be recalled that it took the intervention of the Oyo State Government to convince the police to allow us to remove the container after about three weeks of going back and forth to conclude the investigations into the traffic accident that resulted in the crash. of the container.
With hindsight, the public may also recall that the Authority, having obtained the necessary cooperation with the Police and the Federal Road Safety Corps, moved quickly to evacuate the container on March 30, 2023 in full public light and with the services of contracted private property. crane and low platform service providers from another State, as they were not available in Ibadan at that time.
Immediately after the evacuation exercise, on March 31, 2023, the container owners headed by Alhaji Abdul-Mumeen visited our CEO, Mogaji Akin Fagbemi, to offer unreserved apologies to the people and government of Oyo for their inability to promptly resolve the circumstances that prevented them from removing the container in due time. They regretted the inconvenience caused to the motoring public and assured their willingness to pay the service charges incurred by the Authority in engaging another State’s crane and low platform service providers, as well as the official one million Naira fine issued. by the State Government through OYRTMA for violations of articles 16 (a,b,c,p) and 17 (d) of the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Authority Law of 2009.
Fagbemi said: “In a turn of events, the aforementioned national president of the Council of Maritime Trucking Unions and Associations (COMTUA), Adeyinka Aroyewun, on Wednesday, April 12, 2022, visited the administrative headquarters of OYRTMA in an attempt to influence the the release of the container on the grounds that he is a revered and loyal member of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State and as such has a close personal relationship with the Executive Governor of Oyo State, Eng. Seyi Makinde. He boasted that he would subsequently secure the release of the container without payment of legal fines and charges against the owners.
In his words, Mr. Aroyewun said: “It is shocking that with our pleading and influence, this container is not released without fines. I myself will call the Governor and secure his release. Even in Lagos, we do these things, how much more Ibadan”
In his immediate reaction, OYRTMA head Mogaji Akin Fagbemi had posited that there is no basis for comparison between Oyo State and any other state, as Oyo represents the true PaceSetter state where there is absolute respect for the law. and the order.
Fagbemi said that the claims are not only ludicrous, it is clearly a well-orchestrated attempt to drag the reputable name of the Authority and the Government in the mud by distorting the facts in an attempt to gain undeserved public sympathy after subjecting lives and property. thereof. general public to untold hardship and terrible risk for more than three weeks.
According to him, “no amount of intimidation or interference will prevent the Authority from fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities to ensure safety on all roads in Oyo State and to issue fines to offending groups or individuals to deter others. If you love the public so much whose sympathy you now seek, you would not have allowed your member to endanger the lives and property of the people of Oyo State for so long.
In fact, it will not only pay service charges to the owners of the crane and low-deck equipment that was used to remove the container, but will also pay the sum of one million Naira as an official fine for breaching sections 16 and 17. of the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Authority Act, 2009. In addition, it will pay in full for the damage caused to the body and property of those innocent road users whose vehicles were damaged in crashes caused by by the abandoned container. This is the state of Oyo. We have laws that guide us and our operations,” Fagbemi said.
Meanwhile, at the time of submitting this report, it had been reliably inferred that Mr. Aroyewun Adeyinka, national president of COMTUA, had, under false pretenses, deceived and obtained around N500,000.00 from the container owners on the premise of its acclaimed proximity. to the governor and politicians of Oyo State, giving false assurances to the owners about the possibility of securing the release of the container without the payment of official government fines for contravening the traffic laws in force in the state, which constitutes a danger environmental and reduces incalculable difficulties for travelers along the affected route and causing the loss of productive hours that almost paralyzed the movement of economic activities for a period of no less than three weeks.
