Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, the deputy governor of Anambra, addressed troops on Saturday for placing obstacles on several of the state's main thoroughfares and making it difficult for cars to go.
Ibezim, who oversaw traffic management for the whole state, declared it intolerable for drivers to lose time and fuel while snarled in traffic as a result of a military operation intended to produce fictitious jams.
In his view, the security forces could do their tasks without unduly burdening the citizenry.
Ibezim questioned if the soldiers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University gate and the Stanel gas station would store the used tyres and sandbags that they had used to block the route at Amansea, close to the Enugu State boundary on the one-lane motorway.
“We must be sane in this country,” he told the soldiers. “I came here in the morning to warn you about this, but you are still blocking the traffic.”
” I pulled out as a director in the Ministry of Defense; this is not what the Army stands for.
“Allow these people to move; you do not suffer taxpayers this way,” he remarked.
Ibezim urged drivers and pedestrians to work with the state’s traffic management organisations for a more efficient transportation system.
He thinks everyone should follow the rules and the public should have free access to the roadways.
“At Amawbia bye pass, I saw heavy traffic, but when I alighted to find out what was going on, it happened that youth stood in the middle of the road, waving party flag while the traffic stood still.
“I had to order him out to be attested; surprisingly, they said I was threatening to arrest an opposition party faithful, but we won’t succumb to such cheap blackmail; our roads must be free of all obstructions,” he stated.