Trouble… Fire Guts Cars Impounded by Agency

More than ten Impounded vehicles at the Abia Traffic Agency facility on Obikabia Road in Aba, have been completely destroyed by fire.

This occurred shortly after Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu instructed the traffic agency to free all automobiles being held at the yard by December 30, 2022, at the latest.

According to reports, if the men of the Abia State Fire Service, Aba, had not acted quickly to put out the fire before it spread to other parts of the yard, it might have destroyed more vehicles.

The affected vehicles were among those impounded by the Commander of the TIMAAS, Bright Chinedu Ikeokwu before a State High Court sitting in Obingwa Judicial Division presided over by Justice E.O. Enwereji, in Suit No; HOB/24/2022; between Kalu Nnamdi Collins (plaintiff) and TIMAAS and Bright Chinedu Ikeokwu (defendants), which declared TIMAAS an illegal body, stressing that it was not created by any law of the State House of Assembly.

Although the exact cause of the fire is still unknown, it is speculated that some hunters who typically sneak into the yard to look for game may have started the fire.

One of the impacted car owners, who wished to remain unnamed, claimed that since the court ordered the dissolution of the TIMAAS, he has been unable to get his car back from them.

His statement:

“I have made efforts to retrieve my car since the court declared TIMAAS illegal. I don’t have money to pay the huge fine they levied me because I didn’t commit any traffic offence. Every time, I visit, the TIMAAS people have been asking me to see the General Manager, they call him Osama, but he has not been available. I have tried reaching him on the telephone, all to no avail. I heard the Governor has ordered them to release the vehicles, but I don’t know how I can contact the General Manager since he is not responding to my calls.”

Governor Ikpeazu, had in a statement issued through the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Chris Ezem, directed that car owners whose vehicles are being detained at the yard to remove them on or before December 30, 2022.