The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has announced the suspension of its on-street park and pay scheme in Abuja with immediate effect.
This was announced yesterday in a statement signed by the Special Assistant on Media to the FCT Minister, Mr. Nosike Ogbuenyi.
Ogbuenyi said the suspension was in compliance with the judgment of an FCT High Court last Thursday, declaring the system illegal.
According to him, the Secretary of Transportation of the FCTA, Mr. Jonathan Ivoke, had already dispatched a letter to the operators of the scheme informing them of the suspension.
He reminded that the scheme was conceived and launched by the FCTA for the purpose of effective traffic management and control in the nation’s capital city especially against the backdrop of its fast growth in vehicular population.
He said: “The introduction of the scheme is in sync with the standard practice in many mega cities around the world.
“However, while the scheme has been widely hailed for helping to bring about orderliness, sanity, beauty and reduction in auto crashes on FCT roads and streets, some persons and groups opposed to the new order have launched ferocious attacks against it especially through the institution of several legal actions challenging its legal status.”
Judgment of Justice Peter Affen of an Abuja High Court which had declared the scheme illegal was the culmination of the attacks launched against the new system by some aggrieved members of the public. .
Ogbuenyi however noted that the court in delivering the judgment rated the scheme as an excellent policy but only faulted it on the grounds that there was no valid legislation backing it.
