Passengers call for government’s intervention in recent imbroglio.

[FMINigeria]

Abia State government has appealed to Imo State government to provide an alternative loading bay for Abia Line Transport Corporation to load in Owerri in order to avert a retaliatory action that will not augur well for the two sister States.

Addressing the Press in Government House, Umuahia, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Ugochukwu Emezue said that the action of the Imo state Governor, Rochas Okorocha in the recent ultimatum issued to evict Abia Line from Owerri is not acceptable to the Abia State Government as there should have been prior general notice to ascertain that due process was followed.

Mr. Emezue urged the Imo Government to reconsider the issue dispassionately as the Abia Line Company has been at the place over the years, helping in inter city transportation. He added that the response of the Imo State Commissioner of Information never presented them as illegal occupants but that the State was obeying their master plan. He stated that Abia State also has its own master plan.

The CPS restated that Imo State Government should not frustrate the efforts of the Abia State Government, who in a bid to help her citizens, injected thirty buses into the corporation to assist transportation. He maintained that necessary action must be taken to show that their action is genuine to help the masses who are now stranded.

According to the General Manager of Imo Transport Corporation (ITC), Mr. Emeka Duru reiterated that the quit notice was given to all transport companies operating in Owerri metropolis – ITC, ABC, Peace Mass, Chisco, etc and not peculiar to Abia Line. He said that ITC has started preparations to move to the approved site along Onitsha road.

This development has made the already strained relationship between the two State Governments to further deteriorate as the Abia State Government has cordoned off the ITC loading bay with zinc in Aba and Umuahia, thereby making all the passengers seeking transportation to both States, stranded.

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Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria