1 month ago
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A human rights group, the Organisation for Human and Peoples Rights Protection and Humanitarian has urged the Delta State government to provide a subsidized mass transport scheme for the people of the state to cushion the economic hardship.
The group averred that to achieve this, the Governor Sheriff Oborevwori-led administration in Delta State “should, as a matter of urgency, establish a committee to explore the possibilities of acquiring electric vehicles for mass transit, since fuel subsidy removal had grossly escalated fuel costs, thus leading to increased transportation expenses for workers.”
This was contained in a statement signed by the National President of the organisation, Comrade Ezekiel Kagbala, an investigative journalist and publisher of FocalPoint Reports.
The statement, copies of which were made available to newsmen in Warri on Tuesday, appealed to the state governor to “initiate a 50 per cent fare subsidy to enable Deltans to move around with ease given the current economic hardship being experienced in the country.”
The organization averred that “if possible, the state government should acquire buses for mass transit and also establish partnerships with private transporters as was done in the era of former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan in Delta, who acquired over 130 mass-transit buses, thus ensuring that Deltans moved around in comfortable vehicles at affordable cost.”
The statement partly reads, “Currently, Deltans are experiencing high cost of transportation, though the primary cause was the fuel subsidy removal and the non-investment of the state government in the transport sector to ease commuting and small-scale business.
“The other factor is that the state government presently has no regulatory measures in place to check excessive increment of transportation costs and activities of ‘agberos,’ who unilaterally compel transporters to increase transport fares at impulse.
“Governor Obovrevwori should know better that Deltans are experiencing multi-dimensional hardship, the worst of its kind. Delta people would not have felt it this hard if the state government had initiated micro-projects geared towards addressing the basic needs of Deltans.
“There is no doubt that the state governor had good intentions for prioritizing mega projects, such as bridges and road construction, and building universities in the state, etc.
“However, Governor SmObovrevwori should, as a matter of urgency, direct the Ministries of Housing, Economic Planning, Transport, and Agriculture to embark on micro community-based projects to regulate and provide affordable housing schemes that will decongest the cities and ensure that residents have some space for farming. Economic planners should get out of their offices and avail themselves of usable data to enable the state government to plan economically viable micro-scale projects effectively.
“For instance, the Ministry of Transport should provide and regulate affordable, decent transport means and flush out the entourage of garage touts who, on daily basis, unleash terror on transport operators over refusal to dance to their tune.
“Also, the Ministry of Agriculture personnel have no business in restricting themselves to air-conditioned offices; rather, the agricultural extension workers should be deployed to tour farms and provide instant support to boost cropping and life-stocking activities while every civil servant should even be encouraged to have their farms.”
