By Enahoro Iyemefokhai
Edo State Government says it has put a task force in place to investigate the declining revenue profile of the road transport unions in the state.
The state Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu who inaugurated the 9- man task force in his office in Benin City gave the team four weeks to submit its reports.
Shaibu declined the low revenue generation profile of the National Union of Road Transport Workers of Nigeria (NURTW and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria ( RTEAN).
He lamented that of the N1.5billion revenue target for the sector in the 2021 fiscal years, the performance of the two unions was abysmally poor.
“These two unions have consistently been posting the same figures in the last nine months of the year 2021.
“Even during the rush period, (festivities) the figures remained constant”. The other sister union, ANAWATT that deals with just tricycles and bikes has been doing very well, posting higher returns.
“I believe something is wrong somewhere. The target of N1.5billion we set for ourselves for 2021, we did not get anything close to it”, he said.
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The deputy governor gave a marching order to the task force headed by his Chief of Staff, Hon Jimoh Ijegbai to find out how to block the leakages and boost revenue generation from the sector to the benefit of the state.
While noting that the task force was not meant to witch hunt anybody, he added that it was a fact-finding body to look into the declining revenue profile of the two approved transport unions in the state.
In his response on behalf of other members, Ijegbai said the body will work round the clock to turn in the report within the time frame to boost revenue in the sector.
Other members of the task force include Chief Odion Olaye, State chairman of NURTW and Pastor Sunday Erahon, State chairman of RTEAN, local government representatives from the three senatorial districts, a representative from the state Revenue Board and the development partners.
