By Ike Uche

CALABAR—There was pandemonium in Calabar,  Cross River State, yesterday, as two government agencies accused themselves of sponsoring crisis and stage-managing protests in the state.

Vanguard learned that trouble started when over 50 drivers stormed the governor’s office and were driven back by a detachment of policemen, only for the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Transportation, Mr. Emmanuel Mbora, to accuse the Commercial Transport Regulatory Agency, CTRA, of flouting his earlier order not to levy transport operators forthwith.

He said the drivers were protesting against “illegal and forceful” levies imposed on them by the Unified Commercial Motors Association, and aided by CTRA,” recalling that he had issued a release on July 23 this year against the payment of tax by unions and associations.

Reacting, Chairman of CTRA, Mr. Mfon Bassey, accused the Special Adviser of “stage-managing” the protest, regretting that while Mbora had “purportedly announced that there should be no tax, he brought out two different tickets and he is selling them to make money for himself.”