Over 5 officials of the Traffic and Indiscipline Management Agency of Abia State, TIMAAS, were yesterday, attacked by an angry mob at Brass junction, along Aba-Owerri road, Aba.
Trouble started for the TIMAAS officials when a car they were chasing, knocked down a pedestrian as the driver was trying to escape from the traffic agency operatives.
Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the pedestrian sustained severe injuries which angered some passersby. Instead of attending to the injured pedestrian, the TIMAAS officials were said to have gone to arrest the traffic offender. In the confusion, some Keke operators used their tricycles to barricade the road and assaulted the TIMAAS officials, and burnt their operational bus.
“The TIMAAS officials were pursuing a driver who drove against traffic, but the driver of the car knocked down a pedestrian while trying to escape from the TIMAAS people. Some Keke operators who saw what happened, that the TIMASS officials never cared to check on the injured pedestrian, use their tricycle to barricade the road and beat them and set their bus on fire,” the eyewitnesses said.
However, the General Manager of TIMAAS, Mr. Bright Chinedu Ikeokwu, said the agency is not deterred by the actions of some elements that have continued to attack its personnel on official state assignments.
He explained that changing an entrenched traffic culture in Aba is not an easy job, stressing that motorists in the city are always impatient.
Ikeokwu disclosed that the adoption of the newly introduced Digital traffic lights in the city by the state government has become a challenge to motorists in the city who find it difficult to confirm.
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He, however, commended the state government for the innovation, stressing that TIMAAS will continue to work until motorists begin to obey the traffic laws.
Abia Govt Warns attacking Traffic Agency officials
Abia state government has warned residents and motorists against attacking officials of the Traffic and Indiscipline Management Agency of Abia State, TIMASS, who are saddled with enforcing discipline on the roads in the state.
Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Chris Ezem, who issued the warning in a statement, explained that the law supports TIMAAS to arrest and impound vehicles and tricycles that contravene traffic laws in the State.
He disclosed that the state government’s attention was drawn to the ugly incident at the weekend at Brass Junction Aba, where TIMAAS officials, who were carrying out their lawful duties were brutalized, assaulted and the operational bus of the agency was set ablaze by traffic offenders and Keke riders in the area.
“Government Views this action as lawless, unpatriotic, and confrontational to constituted authority. The government wishes to state that no one has the right to drive against traffic rules or traffic lights or against any road marked as one way. Government hereby warn motorist and Keke operators plying one way to desist forthwith or be prepared to face the full wrath of the law. Security agencies have been directed to fish out the perpetrators of the barbaric act of the incident and bring them to book.”
