By Emeka Omeihe Suspension of all activities of the Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission (ENTRACO) by the state government, must have come to residents as a huge relief. The measure followed an incident in which officials of the agency were implicated in the gruesome deaths of a motorbike rider and his passenger in the Owerri municipality.
An ENTRACO vehicle rammed into the bike rider and his passenger along the Akachi-Wethedral road axis resulting in their instant deaths. It is not clear whether their action was in furtherance of the resumed enforcement of the ban on commercial motorcycles in Owerri municipality which commenced on November 9, 2025.
But the incident attracted serious public outrage and evoked sad memories of the reckless and arbitrary conducts of ENTRACO officials. A trending video showed one of the victims with his two legs totally crushed. The other had his head shattered as they lay in a pool of blood.
The incident must have so embarrassed the state government that it ordered immediate suspension of all activities of the agency with a directive to security agencies to arrest and apprehend anyone parading as its agent.
In arriving at the decision, the government said it was guided by “recent ugly incidents where the mode of operation of the agency was brought to question by members of the public”. It promised investigations into ENTRACO’s operations and its affiliated entities to demonstrate the regime’s ‘commitment to lawful governance and the safety of Imo citizens’.
This should be good news for Imo citizens who have been reeling under the pains of the excesses and arbitrariness of ENTRACO operatives and allied task forces.
Last October, its officials were involved in a two-day fracas with traders, their sympathisers including some security personnel at the Toronto junction market in Owerri. This led to loss of lives, injuries and destruction of properties. Accounts of the immediate cause of the fracas vary. But they hovered around the unbearable excesses of agency officials in carrying out their duties.
Allegations of ENTRACO officials breaking into shops at night carting away goods, cash and sundry equipment without any record were freely traded. If officials were not found destroying the wares of petty traders obstructing traffic flow, they were seen chasing and beating them with any objects at their disposal. Impunity held sway.
About two months ago, youths from the Naze community had blocked the office of ENTRACO in protest against the alleged killing of one of their brothers in an accident caused by the agency’s operatives. It is common to see traders running in all directions at the slightest alarm of the approach of ENTRACO officials.
Not unexpectedly, some criminally minded individuals capitalise on the agency’s improper mode of operation to raise false alarms in order to steal from petty traders as they run with their goods. Ironically, the agency seems to be operating beyond the law that set it up. The 2008 law which established the agency, charged it with beautifying and maintaining a healthy, clean and green environment.
Its other mandate includes, overseeing sanitation, clearing gutters, planting trees and flowers and other efforts to bring about an environmentally healthy society. Admittedly, the agency is bound to come into conflict with residents who improperly display wares along the roads, throw refuse into gutters or obstruct free movement especially around the markets. The way it goes about this is the issue.
It appears ENTRACO prioritizes chasing traders and motorists around, confiscating their goods and other wares than the main functions assigned it by law. The reason is not far-fetched. It is for the same reason that they are more engrossed in chasing motorists around wielding dangerous weapons as was on display during the fracas at the Toronto junction market.
Even then, their spheres of activity seem to blur the line between their authorised functions and that of the Imo State Traffic Management Agency (ISTMA). The latter is empowered by law to handle traffic and parking violations. It strikes as a usurpation of functions and avoidable duplication.
It is good a thing the state government has seen sufficient reasons to suspend all the activities of the agency and allied task forces that have become a nightmare to citizens of the state. The government should go ahead to empanel a commission of inquiry to investigate their activities and other task forces.
The public should be given ample opportunity to present their encounters with these task forces to the commission. Such testimonies will aid the government in re-defining the rules of engagement for the various task forces that seem to accord scant regard to the dignity of the human person, due process and the material conditions of the citizens.
Of note, is the type of personnel engaged by these task forces and their requisite training to carry out their duties. Things are hard. A lot of people find it hard to eke a living. Destroying goods and properties indiscriminately in the face of existential challenges will only end up swelling the army of the unemployed with dire consequences for the festering insecurity in the country.
That was the dialectics at play during the Toronto junction market fracas. The situation calls for a greater measure of discretion and understanding. A law is as good as the people it serves.
There is also an item in the checklist of Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO’s) that should draw the attention of the state government-mandatory first-aid-kits for private cars. There is no evidence of the specific Imo state law mandating first-aid-kits in private cars. The requirement is traced to a resolution by the Imo state house of assembly in 2022, directing VIO’s and other agencies to enforce compliance. The justification is predicated on public safety. Right.
The VIO’s impose a fine of ten thousand Naira on defaulters, many of them unaware of such requirement. This writer was taken aback during a recent visit to the state when he was contravened for not having a first-aid-kit in his car. It was a huge surprise because even the federal highway regulations do not mandate private cars to carry first-aid-kits.
Imo has a small land mass. You can access any local government area from the state capital within one hour. And in-between, you can rarely travel three kilometres without finding a shop to buy bandages, disinfectants, pain relieving tablets and plasters that make up items in the kit. If federal highways that traverse thousands of kilometres do not punish private cars for not having such kits, its attraction to Imo presents a puzzle.
Yes, public safety is cited. But the lure of more revenue into government coffers appears the main attraction. Not surprisingly, there is an official at a corner collecting cash, issuing receipts. Whether the cash is remitted into government coffers is another issue altogether. It is a burden the private car owner should be relieved of.
