Under the aegis of the Plateau State Joint Transport, Traders and Marketers Association, transporters and other trade unions in the state of Plateau declared on Tuesday that they will be holding sit-at-homes starting today (Wednesday).

The group’s spokesman, Abubakar Garba, made this announcement at a news conference in Jos on Tuesday.

He stated that the purpose of the action was to express the group’s opposition to an executive order that Governor Caleb Mutfwang had recently signed.

In an effort to regulate unauthorized building construction and traffic in the state, Mutfwang last month signed Executive Order No. 003, 2024.

The Executive Order barred trucks and other large vehicles from entering the Jos-Bukuru Metropolis, or Central Business Area, between the hours of six in the morning and nine in the evening.

For violations, it stipulated a N500,000 fine and the truck’s impoundment.

However, the Plateau State Joint Transport, Traders and Marketers Association rejected the limitation at a news conference on Tuesday.

The presidential order, according to the group’s spokesman Garba, violated their fundamental right to freedom of movement, which is protected by the 1999 Constitution.

Garba said, “The last time we checked, we found out that the roads, which the government is barricading for us not to ply, belong to the Federal Government, which the Federal Government constructed to ease movement from one state to another.

“Based on this development, restricting any vehicular movement on those roads is an infringement on our fundamental rights of movement as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria .

“We, therefore, call on the government of Plateau State to retrace its steps on this executive order by releasing our impounded trucks immediately, provide designated routes for trucks, allow tricks moving goods to their states like Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Borno and Jigawa states to use the bye-pass roads to their destinations.

“We further urge the governmEnt to construct truck terminals for the efficient working of the executive order and also to reduce the restriction time from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am to 5pm to 7am so as to reduce the hardship faced by truck owners and high cost of goods and services by the citizens.

“We will continue to use all available legal means for the enforcement of our fundamental rights even as we have resolved to declare tomorrow, Wednesday, April 3, 2024 as a warning strike to sit at home, to show our dissatisfaction with the sad executive order No 003 and we shall continue until a lasting solution is found.”

Upon being reached, Musa Ashoms, the state commissioner for information, stated that they were meeting with trade union representatives to iron out any ambiguities around the executive order.

But he insisted that the executive order was here to stay.