Rights groups call for disbandment of traffic agency in Anambra

Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has been advised to immediately disband recently constituted Anambra State Road Management Agency (ARTMA) over alleged corruption and intimidation of motorists in the state.

The Human Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders’ Foundation (HURIDE) and Campaign for Democracy (CD), South East zone, made the call in a statement signed by their Chairman, Dede Uzor, due to activities of the agency, which, according to the groups, are capable of causing breakdown of law and order.

The groups also called on the governor to constitute an ARTMA made of people with character, and who are professionally trained to do the work with a human face.

They also said that the present Commander of the agency, Emmanuel Nnamdi, should be removed and arrested for alleged corruption, as well as being behind extortion of road users in the state.

Uzor said the disbandment of the agency has become imperative to stem the tide of corruption, abuse, high-handedness and criminalities exhibited by operatives of the agency against road users in the state.

The groups said the agency abandoned its statutory duty of managing traffic on roads as it engaged in abuse and exhortation of road users.

They added that the state couldn’t set up an organisation like ARTMA for profit motives, lamenting that the agency’s unconventional operation of impounding vehicles and extorting money negates their statutory duty.

They alleged that ARTMA remapped some major streets and roads, making them one-way without adequate publicity to sensitise motorists, as well as other road users.