By Amos Aar
THE GENERAL Manager (GM), Benue Links Company Ltd, Comrade Alexander Fanafa, has debunked public complaints over alleged frequent road accidents involving the company’s vehicles in recent times.
Fanafa debunked the speculations while fielding questions from journalists in his office on Wednesday on the confirmation of his appointment as the substantive GM by Governor Hyacinth Alia on Tuesday.
National Record had noted public complaints over increased rate of accidents by Benue Links vehicles especially from the period when 100 buses were recently procured by the state government for the company.
Fanafa, however, argued that the company under his watch was witnessing low rate of accidents and was ranked second by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in that regard.
“The recent Federal Road Safety publication of the accident rate concerning transport companies, Benue Links inclusive, I think we have come in such a way that we are the second least experienced company with accident in the past 12 months. The statistics is there. You can just log onto the website of the Road Safety and you will get it. The statistics is always there. I will look for a hardcopy and make it available to you so that you can assess the performance indices of road accidents from these past 12 months of Fr. Alia and the previous ones.
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“I think this issue has drastically reduced because of continuous orientation that we talk to these drivers at least twice every week. Then, the safety officers will move from here to Gboko, from Gboko to Otukpo and talk to the drivers.
“We also invite Road Safety, the VIO. At a particular point, we invited the Road Safety in Abuja who came and talked to the drivers, gave them orientation and orientation is not a one-day issue neither is it a yearly event. It is a continuous process and myself as a general manager do it at least once every week, talking to these people, reduce speed, speed kills while we have introduced speed limit devices in all these vehicles.
“So, accident cases have drastically reduced in Benue Links Company Ltd during His Excellency’s period and so, if somebody says they are becoming very frequent, I think it beats my imagination or I feel it’s the calculative imagination of the person that uttered such a question”, the GM responded to a question on the reported accidents by Benue Links.
Asked what were the remarkable moments during his acting period and how it would translate to taking Benue Links to the desired level, Fanafa, who hails from Katsina-Ala LGA of the state and assumed duty as acting GM on June 15, 2023, said the whole period was remarkable to him as it was full of achievements through the instrumentality of his principal, Governor Alia.
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“In fact, if I remember the exact number of days, I would have said all these days were remarkable because you are acting, every other day, the governor is paying you visit, encouraging you, giving you support, telling you what to do, giving you the wherewithal, staying there to supervise that these things are done, these are remarkable days.
“But particularly, when the culvert was completed as instructed by the governor, it was a major milestone so that the company was no longer there. When he donated 100 buses, I felt elated as if I was standing on top of my head. At the time he bought the place in Abuja and it was formally handed over to the management of Benue Links, my joy couldn’t just be expressed in few words within my vocabulary”, Fanafa said.
He expressed gratitude to Governor Alia for finding him worthy of the substantive appointment without lobbying for it.
“I’m full of joy and appreciation to Almighty God for allowing this to happen. I owe a lot of gratitude to His Excellency, the executive governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr Dr Hyacinth Iormem Alia, for him to have decided out of his magnanimity, out of his love, out of his personal consideration and choice to have selected me to act here for some time and for him to decide without lobbying to confirm this appointment at his own discretion and at his own appointed time. So, I feel so good, I feel so fulfilled”, the GM said as highlighted many other achievements at the state-owned transport company under the Alia-led administration within one year in office.
