Kano convicts 5,000 traffic defaulters

Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

The Kano Road Traffic Agency (KAROTA) has secured the conviction of over 5,000 traffic offenders within one month through the traffic offences Mobile Court.

Briefing the executive members of Kano state Correspondent Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) who paid him a courtesy call in his office on Thursday, the Managing Director of the agency, Hon. Baffa Danagudi, said their offences ranged from wrong packing, reckless driving, receiving/making calls while driving, over-speeding, among other related traffic offences.

Danagundi stated: “As a result of the measures we put in place, since I came in as the Managing Director of KAROTA, the rate of accidents within Kano metropolis has dropped by over 70 per cent.

“This is no joke. This is not a fabricated data. The facts are there even in our hospitals.

“When I visited some of the hospitals within the state, they confirmed this to me and I am very happy because this feat is due to the re-orientation of our staff who are now fully motivated to work for the interest of the people and our dear Kano state.”

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He added: “To tell you that even the road users are now conscious of the traffic laws, by June this year for instance, we were getting about N5.5 million as fines from traffic offenders but in July, we were able to receive only N2 million as fines from traffic offenders—this is to tell you that the road users are now abiding by the traffic laws, rules and regulations.”

Danagundi, who was the immediate-past Majority Leader in the Kano Assembly, said the agency is seeking to amend its laws “so as to incorporate community services as punishment for traffic offenders in the state.

“You know, one of the challenges we face is that when you arrest some of these traffic offenders, they will tell you that they don’t have money.

“KAROTA is not a revenue generation agency per se, what we are really after is for road users to maintain traffic laws.
“So, we want to introduce this community services as a way of punishment so that when you say you don’t have money to pay your fine, you will be assigned to do a community service labour commiserate with the gravity of traffic offence you committed.”