By Afolabi Sunday
The Commissioner for Transportation in Ekiti State Honourable Kehinde Kolawole Ajobiewe has reinstated the commitment of the ministry to drive the newly created sector through ICT so that the crooked ways of doing things in the transport sector will be a thing of the past in the State.
Speaking with Ekiti Standard newspaper correspondent in his office on Thursday, Ajobiewe said his vision for the ministry is to support the vision of Mr Governor by easing the major transportation problems in Ekiti State.
He said as a new ministry that was carved out of the ministry of Works and Transport, he together with his team, have studied the ground as a form of base land and the present situation of transport in Ekiti Vis a Vis what is on ground and where they can easily come in to bring new innovations into the system.
The Commissioner noted that apart from driving the sector through ICT, there are many other areas that needed to be improved on.
He noted that the ministry is looking at resuscitating the moribund Ekiti Kete Mass Transit, the trailer parks at Omuo Oke, Itawure and Ikere Ekiti among other things.
He noted further that the ministry is looking at what is happening in Lagos, Oyo in terms of their improved transport system and they are trying to under study them. “We have seen what they are already practising in these states that I call Park Management System, and we are thinking around the same line” he said.
He commended the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji for his developmental programmes in the State particularly his support for the newly created ministry of Transport which has in many ways ease what supposed to be obstacles for them.
He thanked the Governor for providing befitting office apartment for them and also
supporting them in so many ways which has given the ministry soft landing with less obstacles.
Ajobiewe said the ministry is looking into the law guiding the sector in the state with a view to improve on it.
“There is a kind of law in existence that is not yet perfect that is guiding our operations, we are looking for a way of reviewing it. The law we have now is the one that established EKSMA which is not traffic law perse” he said.
The Commissioner said part of the state government efforts at sanitising the sector is the relocating of the drivers and the different parks in the state capital to the central park recently inaugurated in Ado Ekiti.
He noted that there are many illegal parks in the State capital and by relocating all this parks to the central motor park is a way of discongesting all these parks.
“As you can see, we have so many illegal parks in Ado Ekiti and this is a way to discongest them because many have been constituting a kind of nuisance to our streets, but now, moving all those illegal parks and drivers to this new bus terminal has reduced hold ups and other traffic menace on our roads and now you can see a kind of free flow of traffic in the state capital” he said.
Hon. Ajobiewe urged all Ekiti people to support and corporate with the Governor because of his good intentions for the state and his vision to take us to a very great level in Ekiti State.
