Traders in Ogun State have been warned against the habitual attitude of blocking the highways with their goods.
The Ota Divisional Commander of the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO), Paul Kehinde Osukoya, gave the warning yesterday at a joint task force operation, involving officers in the Police, Army, Customs, Navy, VIO, Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) serving within the jurisdiction in accordance with the order of Area Commander in charge of Sango Divisional Police Command, Assistant Commissioner of Police Adegoke Fayoade.
The operation was tagged: “Operation Mob Up”
The operation began around 6am with about 30 officers who had gathered at the Sango Divisional Police Command.
The three-hour operation began in Sango and ended at the same place without making any arrest.
The operation, according to Osukoya, was a monthly exercise aimed at discouraging traders from blocking roads with their goods in order to avoid gridlock and crashes on the roads.
He said the operation would complement the efforts of Governor Ibikunle Amosun on environmental cleaning.
He said: “The state government is not happy with the residents, traders and motorists violating the traffic rules. Road obstruction or blockage by anybody without permission from the government is a punishable offence under the Highway Code”.
He appealed to traders and motorists to comply with the traffic rules, saying anyone caught disobeying the traffic rules would be made to face the wrath of law.
The Ota Divisional Commander of the TRACE, Adekunle Ariyo Ajibade, said the corps would no longer tolerate road indiscipline, especially illegal parking by motorists and road blockage by traders.
Ajibade urged motorists and okada riders to stop driving against traffic, adding that anyone caught in the act would be made to go for a psychiatric evaluation test and punished.