For the Traffic Warden Service, liberation from police bondage looms

After several decades of cagey suppression and exploitation by the Nigeria Police Force, the Traffic Warden Service (TWS) duly established by law enacted during the Murtala Mohammed regime and still subsisting has taken a bold legal step forward to regain its autonomy and independence courtesy the relentless battle by an NGO - Greater Virtue for Traffic Watch and Development Initiative (VANCTRAWACT). Sam Asowata reports

 

 Noiseless! Ceaseless! Bit­ter! Intriguing! The war rages! The war for independence from police tyr­anny - exploitation, degrada­tion and contrived stagnation. These are some of the sins al­legedly perpetrated by the Ni­geria Police Force against traf­fic wardens and from which a Human Rights Non-Gov­ernmental Organisation, the Greater Virtue For Traffic Watch and Development Ini­tiative is focused on and un­compromisingly warring to liberate them.

As wars go, this war is an epic, titanic and significantly epochal! Given the sheer re­solve of its pro-wardens pros­ecutors, traffic wardens will soon be free. This is because the NGO fighting for their lib­eration is determined that the rule of law must triumph over police enslavement of fellow law enforcers and an equal gov­ernment establishment: The Traffic Warden Service.

 

To secure this already visi­ble victory, the NGO went to court. It stated its case before a Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, both in Ka­duna, Kaduna State. On May 18, 2000, the latter court loud­ly and unequivocally declared that the Traffic Warden Ser­vice is an autonomous es­tablishment of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Yes! Autonomy should be grant­ed immediately to the Traffic Warden Service, TWS, which was created in 1975 by the mil­itary government of Brigadier Murtala Ramat Mohammed whose signature enlivened Decree Number 21 of 1975 on August 19, 1975. It was even and deservedly honoured by being conferred with retro­active effect from March 24, 1974! So why is the Nigeria Police still clinging to the Traf­fic Warden Service and throt­tling it?

This is why the aforemen­tioned NGO is battling un­dauntedly to stop the Police Force from killing Traffic War­dens. But many hardly know much about this human rights NGO. It’s Chairman is Jonah Kebekobase Johnsonapla. He is the head of Greater Virtue For Traffic Watch and De­velopment Initiative, VANC­TRAWACT.

 

The group began its battle to free Traffic Wardens from Po­lice asphyxiation fourteen years ago. Indeed, apart from the two duels in court, the NGO has also taken the war to the Nige­rian Senate! Yes! It has actually presented a Memorandum to that Red Chamber’s Commit­tee on Police Affairs. The oc­casion was the Public Hearing of the Traffic Warden Bill 2016.

But why is VANC­TRAWACT frenetically bat­tling to topple the Nigeria Po­lice interference from the lives of Traffic Wardens? Legion are the sins of the Police but as al­ready elaborated and without exaggeration, the Police is a threat to Traffic Wardens and to the autonomy of the Traffic Warden Service, TWS.

The Nigeria Police blocks Traffic Wardens from promo­tion. Traffic Wardens are paid the pauper’s pittance. Traf­fic Wardens are mocked and jeered at. Traffic Wardens are sidelined and shoved into the darkest shadows created by the Nigeria Police for the Nigeria Police!

 

The Traffic Warden Service was not founded by the Nige­ria Police even though it was born by the Motor Traffic Di­vision, MTD, of the Force. As revealed already, the signa­ture of the then Head of State, Brigadier Murtala Ramat Mo­hammed, gave life to the Traf­fic Warden Service, via Decree 21, on August 19, 1975. Again, as earlier said, its effective date was even backdated to March 24, 1974! All these only struck the Nigeria Police like an ar­row and like a burning spear. This is why it has unrepentant­ly and constantly blocked the actualisation of the autonomy of the Traffic Warden Service, TWS, even after the Court of Appeal ordered the severing of whatever umbilical cord there might have been, linking the two establishments: the Traf­fic Warden Service, TWS, and the Nigeria Police Force

But is the valiant NGO VANCTRAWACT deterred by the recalcitrance of the Ni­geria Police? Far from it be­cause it is right now enforcing thé aforemetioned judgment of thé Court ôf Appeal in Ka­duna, to wit: Traffic Wardens are not members of the Nige­ria Police; that Trafic Wardens are products of à separate légal establishment from thé Nigeria Police Force.

 

According to Mr John­sonapla, head of thé NGO, “It would be recalled that Trafic Wardens, in 1997, took the In­spector-General of Police, the Police and joined the Police Service Commission to court. This came as a result of the de­liberate, inconsistent and uni­latéral acts of the Nigeria Police illegally slashing thé salaries of Traffic Wardens by fifty per­cent. The Police intentional­ly and unjustly seized the en­titlements of Traffic Wardens without the knowledge of the fédéral government. The Po­lice, in 1990, illegally embed­ded Decree 21 of 1975 (the law that established the Traffic Warden Service) into the Po­lice Act without the knowl­edge of the Traffic Wardens, forcing Traffic Wardens into an interminable apprentice­ship and fraudulent partner­ship.”

 

When Johnsonapla ad­dressed the Senate Commit­tee on Police Affaire on the occasion of thé Public Hear­ing on the Traffic Warden Bill 2016, he literally thun­dered: “Distinguished Sena­tors and Members of this re­spectable Committee, permit me to draw your attention to the Court judgment, from the Court of Appeal, deliv­ered by Justice Mahmud Mo­hammed, the incumbent Chief Justice of Nijeria, granting AU­TONOMY to the Traffic War­den Service, TWS.

“So, Why is the Traffic War­den Service still detained with­out bail in the dark and dingy cell of the Nigeria Police?”

But Mr Johnsonapla has vowed victory. He says his great NGO, the Greater Vir­tue For Traffic Watch and De­velopment Initiative, VANC­TRWACT, is a winner always