- Reassigns staff to ministry of transport
From OSEMWENGIE BEN OGBEMUDIA, Benin City
Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has shut down the state-owned transport outfit, Edo Line, indefinitely. The governor subsequently directed that staff of the agency be reassigned to the Edo State Ministry of Transport.
The governor gave this directive in Benin City as he paid an on-the-spot assessment of Edo line to ascertain the state of the transport company, which had allegedly been collapsing for several years.
During the assessment, Governor Obaseki discovered some buses are in disrepair with major departments, including the mechanic unit, the courier section and the staff office, among others, quite out of kilter.
The governor, accompanied by the Secretary to the State Government, Barr. Osarodion Ogie, the Chief of Staff, Mr. Taiwo Akerele, and other top officials, lamented the condition of the state-owned transport company.
He said: “We will shut down this place, clean it up, and decide on how to liquidate the debt and plan how to use the premises for other ventures”.
Noting that company’s debt was about N1.5bn, he said: “This is a typical waste. Can you see how many vehicles are around? We have been paying people close up to four years without doing any work. The company has a huge amount of debt and as a government, we cannot continue in this situation. What we are doing is that we are absorbing the staff”.
The company, which last operated on May 2015, had workforce that was 186-people strong with its headquarters located at James Watt Road, Off Mission road, Benin City and other outlets in Lagos, Abuja, as well as other parts of the country.