PUTTING TO REST A FRAUDULENT SCHEME : Abuja park and pay scheme suspended with immediate effect ... YNaij

Following a ruling by an Abuja High Court declaring the city’s on-street park and pay scheme as illegal, the FCT authorities have announced its suspension with immediate effect.
This decision was made public by Nosike Ogbuenyi, the Special Assistant to the FCT Minister earlier today.
Reports say all the operators of the scheme have been made aware of the development. The Secretary of Transportation of the FCT Administration, Jonathan Achara Ivoke, has reportedly dispatched a letter to the operators of the scheme informing them of the suspension.
Ogbuenyi said, “However, while the scheme has been widely hailed for helping to bring about orderliness, sanity, beauty and reduction in auto crashes on FCT roads and streets, some persons and groups opposed to the new order have launched ferocious attacks against it especially through the institution of several legal actions challenging its legal status.
“The judgment delivered last Thursday, April 17, 2014 by Justice Peter Affen of FCT High Court declaring the scheme illegal was thus the culmination of the attacks launched against the new system by the forces resisting the new order.
“It is however noteworthy that the court in delivering the judgment rated the scheme as an excellent policy but only faulted it on the ground that there was no valid legislation backing it.”
“As a law abiding organization that strongly believes in the rule of law, the FCT Administration has decided to comply with the judgment of the court. By this decision, all the operators licensed by the FCT Administration have been directed to immediately suspend the operation of the scheme to give full effect to the judgment.
“Meanwhile, the FCT Administration has set in motion the process for a review of the FCT Road Transport Regulation, 2005 to address the legal lacuna and to properly capture the on-street park and pay scheme in it including the incorporation of the extensive review already started by the Administration. The review is expected to address perceived loopholes in the scheme.”
A Federal Capital Territory High Court had last Thursday declared the scheme as illegal. The suit was brought before the court by an Abuja-based  private savings and loan firm. Justice Peter Affen, who presided over the case  ordered the immediate stoppage policy in the city centre.
The operators of the scheme have been accused of illegally extorting money from motorists with no justification for such.