Abuse of Office: Group urges Soludo to sack ARTMA chairman, zonal leader over alleged extortion

By Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha

Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has been urged by a group, Anambra Stakeholders Forum, (ASF), to immediately relief Emeka JohnCross Okonkwo of his appointment as state Chairman of Anambra Road Traffic Management Agency, ARTMA over alleged personnel extortion.

The group also demanded for  the sack of the Onitsha Zonal leader of ARTMA, Nnamdi Emmanuel Aghadinunor of his appointment for the same personnel extortion.

Leader of ASF, Nze Uzoma Anunihu who made the urge in a press statement issued in Awka, State capital, weekend, said the urge for the immediate sack of the duo of Konti and Ochudo became imperative in view of the fact that they have consistently abused the privileges given to them to decongest the roads of traffic gridlock.

Nze Anunihu insisted that in the instant case, ARTMA capitalized on the existence of an erosion site at Onitsha/Owerri road to extort as much as N100,000; N200,000 or N300,000 as the case may be from the unsuspecting motorists under false accusation of obstructing road traffic law.

According to ASF, “ARTMA, under the leadership of Konti and Ochudo, impound an average of five vehicles per day and extort huge amount of money from them without paying same into the state government coffers” using POS as a means of payment of such money, instead they normally collect cash from purported offenders 

“Rather than focusing on traffic decongestion which is their primary duties, they go for extortion with full concentration on private vehicles, leaving commercial vehicles because of kick-backs they receive from the commercial vehicle operators”.

“Konti and Ochudo lack the vision to lead ARTMA to success because they have become dictators to the core and at the same time creating bad names for Soludo and his administration. The duo have become  revenue collection agencies. 

They should be shown the way out because instead of decongesting traffic on our roads at strategic places like Owerri road, Upper Iweka, Ochanja Round-about and some other places they embark on extortion,” ASF further disclosed .