The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has impounded 40 cars and 52 motorcycles in its clampdown operation on commercial transport operators for violating traffic rules and aiding criminal activities in Abuja.

Chinedu Elechi, the mandate secretary of the FCT Transport Secretariat, disclosed this on Monday while inspecting the seized cars at the Wuye Command of the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), Abuja.

He stated that the operation was carried out by a multi-agency task force, comprising the police, civil defence, and other security agencies.

The FCT transport scribe, who said commercial motorcycles seized during the raid would be crushed, added that vehicles would be subjected to mobile court processes before final decisions are made.

The secretary stressed that the clampdown would be sustained as long as violators persist, warning that the FCTA will not relent in enforcing order in the transport sector.

He said there has to be sanity because the function of government is actually the welfare and security.

Mr Elechi disclosed that the administration was working on profiling all commercial drivers in Abuja as part of measures to sanitise the sector.

He said that taxis would be allocated numbers, painted, and registered to ensure that commuters only enter identifiable vehicles.

“If you will be doing transportation in Abuja, we will profile all commercial drivers so that everybody will know that when you are entering a commercial vehicle, it is painted and has a side number.

“If you decide to use your personal vehicle to do transportation, we will come after you because that is how the one-chance thing happens,” he said.

Speaking on the newly inaugurated bus terminals, the mandate secretary explained that operations would commence fully once procurement processes for private operators under a public-private partnership arrangement are concluded.

Also speaking, Deborah Osho, acting director of the FCT DRTS, said the vehicles “were impounded for various traffic offences. We have some for route violations and some for driving against the traffic, but the major offense is the unpainted commercial vehicles.

“You can see that a lot of vehicles around there are not painted, and those are the ones that have been used mostly for one chance.”

She added that 52 motorcycles and four tricycles were also confiscated, mainly for route violations and links to criminal activities.

“These ones also are mostly used for criminal activities. You can see for bag snatching and all manner of activities in the town,” she said.

(NAN)