Metro

DRTS promotes 386 personnel to boost traffic mgt in Abuja

By Stanley Onyekwere

As part of measures to ensure effective regulation of road traffic management, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) has promoted 386 officers and men of the Directorate, to help bolster its effort towards better service delivery to residents of Abuja.

It was gathered that the 386 promoted personnel were among the 405 officers and men of the Directorate, who sat for promotion exams in 2022, and emerged successfully.

Speaking at the rank decoration ceremony for the newly promoted officers, yesterday, DRTS Director, Dr. Bello Abdulateef, noted that the promotion will indirectly or directly translate into productivity and service delivery to the public, so people should be rest assured that DRTS is posed for better service going forward.

He disclosed that the Directorate is preparing other trainings for capacity development, to enable those who have been promoted and those waiting to be promoted to equally be on the side of productivity for the DRTS.

“If we have well informed DRTS officers maning our roads, ensuring regulation of road traffic management, and motor vehicle administration.

“To whom much is given, much is expected. We expect them to display some level of responsibility in terms of discretion and repositioning the Directorate for effective service delivery”, he stressed.

He added that the leadership of the DRTS will keep reminding its officers and men to maintain the best standards, inline with the rules and regulations guiding the Service, warning that erring DRTS personnel risks variety of sanctions which may include dismissal from service.

Earlier, in a welcome address, Deputy Director, Human Resource Management (HRM) of the Directorate, Francisca Samuel, who noted that the number of the promoted personnel represents a success rate of 95.30%, said it is the desire of HRM of the Administration Division to surpass this mark in the next promotion

exercise coming up later in the year. She also urged the newly promoted officers, to be committed to their responsibilities and put in required sacrifice to uplift the Directorate to achieve set goals. On her part, Osho Deborah, who was promoted from Assistant Director of Operations to Deputy Director, DRTS Operations, advised her colleagues to continue doing their job with renewed vigor. Osho added that they should be patient, and continue doing what they have been doing in the right and positive light, certainly, they will be encouraged and motivated at the right time. “I received the promotion with a grateful heart, because it came at the right time, as I was supposed in 2022, and I was promoted now. DRTS Director and other senior officers of the Directorate in a group photograph with some of its newly promoted personnel decorated with their new ranks, yesterday, in Abuja. It means a lot to me, it means hope and encouragement to do more and inspire others to know that when you are working hard and diligently, you will always be motivated to do more. “What I would do differently is to make sure effective operations in terms of dedication, discipline and compliance to the guidelines, take place within the Service”, she expressed.

AMAC frowns at FCT Transport Secretariat over return of park-and-pay policy

BY Usman Shuaibu

The administration of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has frowned at the Mandate Secretary in charge of Transport Secretariat of the FCT Administration, Hon. Abdullahi Adamu Candido over the return of Park-and pay policy. This was contained in a press statement signed by Senior Special Assistant on Community Development to the Chairman of AMAC, Mr. Yunusa Yusuf Ahmadu and made available to Peoples Daily Correspondent in Abuja.

According to the statement, it is worrisome for the FCT Transport Secretariat to cook up a Kangaroo way to begin park-andpay which ideally the law does not permit them to do, because they do not have the power to do that.

The statement said “Candido should know clearly that gone are those days when he was the Chairman, he cannot be mandate Secretary and be the Chairman of AMAC at the same time, it is not allowed, it is either he is mandate secretary.

“There are so many laws he should concentrate on, we have issues in train station, people are dying, neighboring communities are sacrificed for train stations and railway, let him go and attend to those issues, we know how people’s bags are being snatched in train stations. I think he has enough job to do rather than concentrating on how to collect park and pay or co-operate parking or whatever he calls it, it solely the responsibility to enforce it and ensure that we get it done”.

It said; “We want to warn clearly that we know the Minister as a law-abiding citizen and nobody should cajole the Minister to do wrong thing, we want to tell Candido that we have records of how he never allowed the park and pay to see the light of the day when it was initially introduced by the FCDA”.

The statement urged the FCT Administration to hands off the policy planned which may take-off by the end of the first quarter of the year and described the act as unjustifiable capable of denying AMAC to get its legitimate revenue in order to provide basic amenities to the residents.

The statement, however, noted that plan if allowed to come back, it would affect the revenue generation in the council, pointing out that the law did not permit another body to collect or manage motorists’ activities especially on

Our tenure will expire this year, says NATMP President

By Usman Shuaibu

The national president of the National Association of Nigeria Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP), Dr Shaba Maikudi, has disclosed that the current executives of the association under his leadership would end their tenure in November, 2023.

Maikudi made the disclosure while briefing newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, pointing out that due to the certificate of return signed by the electoral committee chairman, the secretary of the committee, as well as the Board of Trustee (BOT) Chairman of NANTMP showed that the tenure of the present officials would expire in November, 2023.

He said: “I wish to inform the members of the association and the general public that no election will hold on the 28th of January, 2023 as was spearheaded by a few dismissed executives of the association”.

He further pointed out that the so-called election by a few dismissed executives of the association is a scam capable of defrauding the members.

Maikudi, however, appealed to the entire members of the association not to purchase nomination form from any dismissed members for an election.

FCTA vows to eradicate illiteracy in rural areas

By Stanley Onyekwere

The FCT Administration has reiterated its desire to intensify efforts at eradicating illiteracy especially in all the rural areas of Abuja, the nation’s capital.

This position was made known by the Permanent Secretary for FCT Administration, Olusade Adesola during a recent fiesta organised by FCT Department of Mass Education in Karu, in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

Adesola, who was represented by Faseyi Nathaniel explained that the department, which is saddled with the responsibility of making sure that people at all levels know how to read and write will always be supported to do more.

He however, commended the efforts of the current director of the Department, Titilayo Alayande for her innovations that had repositioned all the centres across the Six Area Councils.

He noted that a better future could only be achieved when people get the requisite knowledge, which he said FCT Department of Mass Education was driving the programme well.