BY SUNDAY EGEDE
THE Chairman, Board of Delta State Traffic Management Authority (DESTMA), Chief Peter Idion has said that the Board of DESTMA will not tolerate any form of exploitation or abuse of power by officers of the agency.
Chief Idion, who disclosed this while reacting to a report titled; “Between Service And Exploitation – Citizens Observation,” said DESTMA was irrevocably committed to investigating any infraction with a view to bringing deviant officer(s) to book.
According to him, the core principles of DESTMA remained restoring sanity on roads across the state, adding that to achieve this; the agency was committed to restoring public trust in its operational activities with a clear understanding that DESTMA’s primary duty was to serve the citizens of Delta State.
He maintained that the DESTMA Board would discipline any ‘bad eggs’ within agency and also, ensure that DESTMA continues to render traffic management services to the people, and not a source of exploitation.
The Chairman, therefore, said the Board and management would work tirelessly to ensure that DESTMA officers uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity, even as he urged the public to continue to provide the new management with feedback and informations to help them improve their services and hold DESTMA officers accountable.
“The attention of the Board of Delta State Traffic Management Authority (DESTMA) has been drawn to a purported report titled “Between Service And Exploitation – Citizens Observation,” which we read with rapt attention and got the clearer picture of the intent of the writer in his message.
“In the report, we noticed a mixed nature of the message, how the writer applauded some of DESTMA officers whilst making some insinuations of extortions by some officers
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the allegation but for the sake of clarity, we have decided to put the record straight.
“First, we appreciate the recognition of the dedicated service provided by DESTMA officers at Kowen Plaza Junction, Governor’s Road Junction, and NTA/McDonald’s Junction, particularly the commendations of the young man at Governor’s Road/Uzoigwe Primary school Junction and a Police Woman Inspector, Akaeze.
“Honestly, DESTMA management value the feedback of the general public, particularly Deltans, which will enable the Board to improve DESTMA services with regards to saving lives, making Delta State roads/streets free and safe for road users, both the pedestrians and for motorists.
“While the present management take responsibility for the shortcomings of some of our officers who were alleged to have acted contrary to our standards, we must, however, disclose that, before this present Board was inaugurated, the DESTMA officers were managed by civil servants; the traffic officers seeing them as mere civil servants.
“This made some of them to be nonchalant, and often times, deviated from our principles which was our watchword, but as soon as this Board was inaugurated, we corrected the abnormality and has set the pace of professionalism for our traffic officers
“Therefore, we take the allegations of misconduct by certain members of our patrol teams very seriously. We, also, understand the public concerns regarding the reported behaviour, and we deeply regret any instances where our officers may have fallen short of the expected standards of professionalism and integrity. “We are committed to thoroughly investigate these allegations and bring the deviating officers to book. This is critical to us as we will not tolerate any form of exploitation or abuse of power by our officers,” he added.
