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Tag: FRSC

  • How to stop petrol tanker explosions, by FRSC chief

    How to stop petrol tanker explosions, by FRSC chief

    Stakeholders in haulage business have agreed to make the roads safe for users.

    They have endorsed the use of a speed limiter on tankers and trailers as being advocated by the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC). The speed limiter’s enforcement begins on September 1.

    The stakeholders, comprising vehicle owners, drivers, oil marketers, policy makers and experts spoke at a summit in Abuja.

    With the theme: Tankers and trailers haulage operations for national development.

    The forum organised by the FRSC, frowned at the petrol tanker explosions, which killed over 80 persons and destroyed properties worth millions naira.

    Participants said more attention should be paid to the vehicles and their drivers.

    FRSC Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi said the agency would not fold its hands and watch while the roads are being turned into a slaughter slab by “reckless drivers”. The agency, he said, organised the summit to brainstorm with the operators and other stakeholders on how to promote safe-driving and boost attitudinal change in drivers, especially those in flammable products hualage.

    At the summit also attended by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria Ports Plc, cement manufacturing firms, flour millers, tank farms, and major fleet operators, Oyeyemi urged fleet operators and owners to intensify the training/retraining of tanker and trailer drivers.

    He suggested that a loading authorisation or safe-to-load permit policy be introduced at the tank farms.

    Oyeyemi said FRSC may recommend the decentralisation of the tank farms and the closure of all illegal ones, adding that, it has become pertinent to have a national policy on the best time of movement for trailers and tankers. There is also need for a mandatory rest period for drivers to be determined by the length of distance covered to avoid stress and fatigue.

    Noting that many of the vehicles are driven by immature drivers, Oyeyemi said the Corps would further tighten access to haulage vehicle’s driver’s licence, to ensure that only mature persons are given.

    He said, henceforth, the Corps would ensure that only trailers and tankers that meet minimum safety standards are allowed to load inflammable products, adding that only those with permissible axle load will carry other cargoes. All the vehicles, the Corps Marshal added, must henceforth fix the retro-reflective tapes to enhance visibility, especially at night.

    Praising the Corps for the summit, an expert Mr Patrick Adenusi said the age of the vehicles must also be factored in as cause of accidents. According to him, over 70 percent of trailers and tankers on the roads are more than 30 years old.

    Adenusi, Executive Director of Safety Without Borders, who described the summit as timely, called for a welfare package for  trailer and tanker drivers.

    Adenusi called for creation of modern vehicle testing agencies, specialised driving schools and the reduction in conflicts between law enforcement agents and drivers through the retraining and modernisation of enforcement officers.

    The Corps, he said, must make parking along the highways (road shoulders) illegal, and all deviant drivers prosecuted.

     

  • FRSC holds retreat in Ebonyi

    FRSC holds retreat in Ebonyi

    The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Boboye Ayeyemi, has urged the men and women of the corps to redouble their efforts to ensure that the target of 50 percent accident reduction is met by the FRSC.

    The corps marshal made the call at the Zonal Retreat of R.S. 9 zonal command of the Corps which took place at the People’s Club in Abakaliki.

    The zone is made up of Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi states commands.

    Represented by ACM Austin Aipoh said the Corps under his administration has been able to push for installation of speed governors commercial buses.

    He expressed happiness that most major transport companies have bought into the policy and are now reaping the benefits as they have witnessed drastic reduction in accidents.

    Mr Ayeyemi urged transporters yet to key in to do so as soon as possible adding that it will go a long way in helping the agency in its fight against road crashes in the country.

    He urged the participants to brainstorm and come up with strategies that will help the zone and the Corps achieve its set targets.

    The corpse Marshal promised to give financial and logistics backing to any recommendations that will be proffered at the end of the retreat.

    In his keynote address, the Zonal Commanding Officcer of RS9 ACM Samuel Obayemi said the retreat is part of the FRSC’s drive to consolidate on her gains.

    He said: “Federal Road Safety Corps being a lead agency in road traffic administration in Nigeria, and by extension, a frontier organisation in Africa on road safety practices seeks to consolidate on her gains as well as appraising our operational activities in order to keep abreast of the world’s emerging trend in road safety management”.

    “It is with great enthusiasm and unbounded joy that I welcome you all to the second quarter 2015 retreat for Commanding Officers, Heads of Department of the Zone and Executive members of the Special Marshals of Zone R59”.

    “Consequently, this retreat is expedient to address some of the daunting challenges confronting the Corps in order to achieve her corporate strategic goals”.

    “Subsequently, Commanding Officers and other principal Officers are enjoined to make the best out of this epoch – making event by making appreciable contributions as well as opening up their minds to issues of discussions.

    “It is hoped that at the end, this retreat will have its desired impact on the general well being of all the Commands within the Zone”.

    The Sector Commander, Ebonyi State Command and Chairman Organising Committee of the retreat, Anne E. Abhiele praised the synergy and cooperation between the various Millitary and para-military agencies in the state, which She noted has enabled the agency achieve great success in the state in the area of road accident reduction.

    She called on the participants to actively participate in the retreat.

    She said: “The theme of the retreat is “CURBING ROAD TRAFFIC CRASH IN ZONE R59’, this retreat will afford Commanding Officers the opportunity to critically look at the overt and covert causes of road crashes in the zone, proffer solutions and redirect our energies to fighting the menace”.

    “Given the caliber of officers drawn from the various sectors and units of zone 9 for this retreat, I have no doubt in my mind that a workable blue print will emerge in the end for curbing the menace of Road Traffic Crash in the Zone”.

    In a goodwill message, the State Cordinator, Special Marshal Programme of the Command, Dr Henry Udochukwu said the introduction of speed limiting devices by the Corps Marshal as a welcome development.

    His words: “This year 2015, the R.S 9, Zonal Command of the Federal Road Safety Corp is again hosted to its Zonal retreat for the second time since this present regime of SMP leadership in 2009”.

    “We are delighted to be hosting this all important event where state commands from Imo, Abia, Enugu states and Ebonyi, converge for a re-training, re-appraisal and re-creation of values and guiding principles that reminds one of our responsibilities to our dear nation, Nigeria, through our chosen service of making our roads a safer place for all road users”.

    “As an agency that ensures sanctity on our roads, FRSC has grown into a phenomenal institution that is not only lSO-certified but has become a model in Africa courtesy of successive seasoned administrators, committed Commanders, Marshals and Special Marshals”.

    Despite parading such envious records, a lot still needs to be done. The challenge of keeping our roads safe is an everyday affair, with new vehicles, new roads constructed or dilapidating, more adolescents showing exuberance even on our highways and increasing rural-urban migrations that exposes us all to higher traffic control”.

    “The antidote to these challenges is thinking, planning and acting ahead. This is why I must salute the latest innovation by our new COMACE on the introduction and use of speed-limiting Device on all commercial vehicies. Such novelties are but many, that we are yet to be seen, as seasoned Chief Executives direct the ship in FRSC”.

    “During the retreat,  will among other things be evaluating more strategies to curb RTA in RS 9, appraise the significant role of special marshals in this onerous task and in all these, learn how to manage stress so that we too can live to enjoy the fullness of life”.

    “These are very delicate areas to appraise, hence the need for a serene environment. In the South East geopolitical zone, within which R.S 9 falls in, Ebonyi State is the most peaceful”.

  • Our Girls; Media vs military; FRSC checkpoints; Legislate against ‘Insult the Citizen Month’

    Our Girls are missing since April 15th 2014. Intelligence is vital for their recovery. This is usually from a debriefing interrogation of freed captives and captured Boko Haram fighters. Are they and kidnap victims debriefed to identify their captors, locate hideouts, analyse modus operandi, trace cellphone numbers and locations and track the money trail?  Some intelligence requires to be paid for leading to opportunities for fraud among security personnel. We pray that the new offensive works. However, it is unethical of the press to prematurely reveal military strategies which must be kept under wraps until after the incident. Boko Haram follows the news giving them an opportunity for ambush, evasion and diversion. Nigeria is at war. Such details cost our soldiers their lives and can cost us the war.

    The Amnesty International Report about military atrocities is another media frenzy matter which the President will study. Human rights are the right of all Nigerians. It is difficult to justify or enforce the human rights of a suicide bomber apprehended only because the bomb failed and who promises to do it ‘properly next time’. However we Nigerians also know that our Human Rights are threatened by everyone in ‘authority’ or uniform, including the police who have again stopped checkpoints, saving the population N12-24billion/year.  The police still swoop on traffic outside their police stations and along major roads in spite of the order.

    Into the gap created by the IGP to stop checkpoints, the FRSC deserves high praise[??] as it has repeatedly proven its uninvited ability to replace the police having abandoned its primary role of ‘keeping traffic moving safely’  at traffic jam areas like on the expressway due to construction and inadequate supervision. Instead the FRSC prefers to jump into the middle of the road, at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Ijebu/ Benin turn and a point at Ogere where the FRSC can truncate your human rights to reach your destination merely by stopping you for no offence other than ‘being on the road’. Thereafter they seek an arrest-able or fine-able offence- trumped up or otherwise. There are bad eggs in the FRSC and their actions kill local and international tourism. Why should I be afraid of the FRSC every time I travel? Indeed I cut down travel not because my papers are not intact but because the FRSC has lost its way and will attempt to embarrass anyone. Travellers beware. FRSC ‘checkpoints’ are alive and well and hungry. It seems it is now a detainable offence ‘to be on the road’. The FRSC needs a new direction and requires to be reined in by President Buhari. I am tired of being stopped at Ogere. I always see three or four cars stopped by FRSC at Ogere and Ijebu turn-off.  I cannot understand why I have been stopped more than seven times by FRSC. What is this your experience?

    The Chinese are building a 57-storey building in 19 days. Our 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is under construction in a four years contract. President Buhari must resist the temptation to ignore this vital road, made problematic by the withdrawal of the road from World Bank contractors with an undisclosed probable ‘breach of contract’ payment by Obasanjo who passed it to Babalakin where it stagnated till Jonathan awarded it to two contractors –Julius Burger and RCC. This four-year contract, too slow, too long and too expensive, has crippled life and ‘enjoyment of the journey’ for millions frequently ‘on the road’. Uncaring contractors create malicious bottlenecks and diversions- a nightmare on Saturdays and Sundays.

    After the ‘please vote for me, I beg, I beg’, it will soon be ‘Insult The Citizen Month’ led by Internally Generated Revenue ‘Consultants’ –the time when the drive for IGR will turn politicians into rude arrogant and often stupid animals as they alienate their voters with stupid ‘No U turn’ and parking laws and excessive fines and taxes. Have you had a really outrageous bill or an insulting ‘Demand Notice’ from an agent, private or government insisting that you pay a maliciously and fictionally high figure, with too short payment times seven days to 28 days –as if you are a thief or robber; backdating for several years –before the politian even came to power; and threats of ridiculous sanctions- cumulative interest rates or sealing of premises or eviction? All these are typical in normal Nigerian customer client/ official relationships. This government must change this and REDUCE TAXES IN LAGOS. Such letters and bills deliberately destabilise you and cause you anger and anxiety from the arrogant unsupervised officials. The Nigerian citizen is not a prisoner and deserves to be treated with better respect and compassion by estate agents, tax officials, and organs of government.

    The legislature must introduce ‘Citizen/Client Protection Laws’ making it a punishable offence for government and private agencies to send stupid, insulting and enraging ‘Demand Notices’ for unimaginable ridiculously high fees, rents, etcetera. Instead they should opt for more civilised and respectful ‘Request Letters’ or ‘Expectation Letters’. ‘Anti-Outrageous Bill’  Legislation is required to enforce accountability, supervision and self-discipline in tax bodies and utility companies and thus stopping outrageous, inflated, unrealistic bills, sent to force the receiver to be corrupt, steal or  die from annoyance or blood pressure. Legislation must prevent litigants from naming ludicrous sums as damages and perhaps demand that if the litigant loses a libel case, the litigant must pay the person-sued a sum equal to 1-10% of the sum sued for defamation of character.

    ‘The Chinese are building a 57-storey building in 19 days. Our 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is under construction in a four years contract. President Buhari must resist the temptation to ignore this vital road, made problematic by the withdrawal of the road from World Bank contractors with an undisclosed probable ‘breach of contract’ payment by Obasanjo who passed it to Babalakin where it stagnated till Jonathan awarded it to two contractors –Julius Burger and RCC’

  • Erring motorists will be sanctioned, says FRSC

    Erring motorists will be sanctioned, says FRSC

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) yesterday vowed to sanction violators of traffic rules in accordance with existing laws.

    The Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, RS 2.17 Ojota Unit Command, Lagos, Kehinde Hamzat, an Assistant Corps Commander (ACC), handed down the warning following the June 9 assault on an official by a fuel tanker driver, Usman Dauda, opposite its Ojota, Lagos office.

    Usman attempted to evade arrest after his tanker marked LSR 528 XE, belonging to MRS Petroleum, was stopped.

    In anger, he blocked the expressway with his truck between the command’s gate and the nearby motorways.

    On arrival, a patrol team made efforts to ensure easy free traffic flow, but Usman instructed his “motor boy” to “completely block the road” to hinder on-coming vehicles.

    Shouting “no one stops tanker drivers,” he hit a Toyota Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) marked AKD 408 DH by the side. When the owner confronted him, he reportedly slapped the man.

    Usman also attacked a Corps official who wanted to restore order. The official spent five days in hospital. The matter was handled by the Alausa Police Station where operatives waded into the matter.

    Yesterday, the tanker owner, Alhaji Jimoh Toibu of Tawahb Nigeria Limited, wrote a letter of apology to the corps’ Unit Commander, with an undertaking to pay for the damages.

    Like the association of tanker drivers, Toibu dissociated himself from the driver’s unruly act.

     

     

     

  • FRSC urges parents on children’s safety

    FRSC urges parents on children’s safety

    In its bid of reduce untimely death of children, the Ota Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr Matthew Olonisaye (ACC), has urged the school proprietors to include child safety education as part of their curricular.

    This, he said, would guarantee the safety of the young ones from various attacks and mishaps befalling them on daily basis.

    Olonisaye spoke during a children’s safety and sensitising programme, organised by the command for the public, school owners and the pupils. It held at the command’s ground.

    The theme of the programme was “Children’s Safety and Security: A Shared Responsibility.”

    He said: “The theme was considered suitable because of the ugly trend of insecurity of children across the nation. He noted that the welfare and security of Nigerian children need more improvement and requires urgent measures, including actions to curb road mishaps.

    Olonisaye said: “It is imperative to be reminding the public that young ones are more prone to dangers of road crashes caused by factors of which human errors take the lead.

    He urged parents and guardians to be more committed to the responsibility of ensuring the safety of their children/wards rights.

    Olonisaye advised parents, guardians and drivers to consider these tips to enable them to achieve reduction or total eradication of maiming of children on the roads. He said: “Every driver should be consistently educated on security and road sign consciousness while driving. Children also should be watchful and vigilant while in transit.

    On vet domestic staff, he said parents should ensure their domestic staff are properly examined and scrutinised before they are employed; noting that the domestic staff must always be studied. He further said that most incidents of child kidnapping have been traced to domestic staff.

    Concerning child education and supervision, Olonisaye advised parents/guardians to “ensure their children/wards are taught on issues concerning discipline and moral behaviours, choosing the right friends and guide them against atrocities and other social vices that could jeopardise their future. As the Bible says ‘train up a child the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” the FRSC boss added.

    The chairman and chairperson of the occasion, Mr Abidemi Oguntade and Mrs Jackie Kassim, requested that the FRSC should organise more orientation programmes such as this. They said most of the drivers lack adequate knowledge on road signs because some of them didn’t attend driving schools.

    Mrs Jackie said a lot of orientation and enforcement need to be done by the FRSC, noting that majority of the commercial drivers are ignorant of roads rules and regulations. She urged the Corps to start the orientation from the scrap and to be strictly before issuing the driving licence to the drivers.

    She urged the Corps to increase their enforcement on recalcitrant motorcyclist carry overloading and riding against traffic. These, she said is one of the major cause of crashes on the road.

    Mrs Jackie appealed to the parents and private vehicle owners to always consider the safety of their children when loading their vehicles.

  • Parastatals and the ethic of change

    Parastatals and the ethic of change

    Allowing the FRSC to legislate compulsory use of speed limiter by motorists, particularly private motorists is one way of over outsourcing governance and in the process shortchanging the democratic process

    Parastatals were in the news most of the time during Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency. At some point, there were complaints that many parastatals, especially those with the power to collect revenue failed to remit such revenues to the federation account as and when due. At another time, it was the sheer number of agencies designed to assist the government in the governing process that caused concerns. To address this, a special committee under the chairmanship of Steve Orosanye was created to suggest ways of rightsizing and downsizing the plethora of agencies. The committee made its recommendations and very little (if any) was adopted. So soon in the life of the Buhari government, parastatals are coming back to the radar.

    One of such agencies is the Federal Road Safety Commission, an agency with its origin in the vision of a stellar patriot who brought the attention of the nation to the needless and avoidable deaths on the country’s roads. As this vision was born during the era of military dictatorship, the FRSC became a child of military creation via the mechanism of decree during the military presidency of General Ibrahim Babangida. The decree that established this agency was transformed in the post-military era into the current Federal Road Safety Commission Act of 2007.

    Today’s piece is not to argue against the existence of the FRSC. On the whole, the FRSC has been a useful agency, even though it came into being on account of the failure of the country’s law enforcement system. The birth and nurturing of FRSC is, though, the product of a fertile imagination, it would not have been necessary if the police force had performed its duty with respect to traffic management creditably. But the focus today is on how to save FRSC from overgrowth, particularly in terms of the power to make legislations that affect citizens without proper consultation with citizens and those citizens had elected as their lawmakers.

    The latest announcement from the FRSC is to the effect that the Commission, in collaboration with the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the Nigerian Police, is in the process of making it mandatory for citizens to have speed limiters on their vehicles. According to the Commission, the rationale for this move is the conclusion that about 50% of road accidents in 2014 resulted from speed. Another cause of accident in the words of the agency is the continued use of “expired and used tyres” by motorists. Without doubt, the increasing number of accidents on the country’s highways should trouble all patriots and in particular an agency with the raison d’etre of eliminating or minimizing road accidents. But both the FRSC and the federal government should ensure that a policy with otherwise good intentions does not by way of the law of unintended consequence become a facilitator of corruption and abuse of citizens’ rights as well as of the democratic process.

    The political moment of promised change and renewal is an appropriate one to look again at the multitude of agencies governing on behalf of the elected governments at the federal and subnational levels. Short of radical transformation of the police system currently in place, it is more likely than not that there will be need for an agency like the FRSC for some time to come. But the new government must not over delegate its lawmaking functions to agencies that are not elected by citizens to perform such functions. Allowing the FRSC to legislate compulsory use of speed limiter by motorists, particularly private motorists is one way of over outsourcing governance and in the process shortchanging the democratic process.

    Looking through the published functions of the FRSC on its website, it is clear that it has “the responsibility to recommend works and devices designed to eliminate or minimize accidents on the highways and to make regulations in pursuance of any of the functions assigned to the Corps by or under the FRSC Establishment Act of 2007.” What is not clear in the recent announcement on the installation of speed limiters on every vehicle is whether this is a recommendation to the governments or a fiat from the Commission. Whatever this policy is designed to be, it is necessary to have a public debate on the issue of mandatory use of speed limiters by individual motorists and by taking the issue to the National Assembly before it is enforced on the highways.

    Similar regulations have gone unnoticed by citizens in the past. For example, making it mandatory for motorists to have in their vehicles so-called ‘C-Caution’ device to alert other motorists about a stalled vehicle on the road has more or less become a normal part of the culture of driving on our highways. However, citizens have not failed to complain that this regulation is passing the buck on the part of government. In cases of good road design that includes having a functioning shoulder for each highway, it would not have been necessary for motorists to spend meagre foreign exchange on imported road caution gadgets. Most motorists outside Nigeria do not know what ‘C-Caution’ device is. Another one is the moribund regulation on obtaining special permit to operate on the road vehicles with tainted glass. Except on rural roads, both the police and FRSC workers appear to have gotten tired of asking motorists to provide such permits, largely because citizens have resisted this arbitrary regulation.Another one is the requirement that drivers wishing to renew their license have to provide a certificate of attendance at a driving institute. In many FRSC driving license issuing centres, drivers are even told which driver education institutes to obtain their clearance from! Citizens have been going along with all these regulations but not without complaints.

    The unfolding effort to make it compulsory for motorists to install speed limiters on their vehicles is similar to the regulation on ‘C-Caution.’Except for speed limiters installed by manufacturers during the building of a vehicle, individual speed limiter purchased and put in vehicles by drivers is not known to be effective in any country. First, such device can be (and is often) ignored by motorists, as it chimes and stops after some time. Secondly, this is passing the responsibility of government to citizens. Most of our roads do not even have visible speed limit signs. There are no speed detecting radars on our highways to assist highway police to track motorists who exceed speed limit and to caution motorists while they drive, as it is often the case in other countries. The agency may achieve its objectives better by also advising government on providing proper infrastructure including filling potholes before they become gorges on highways.

    More fundamentally, how democratic is it for an agency to create regulations (legislations more or less) that impact on citizens’ property rights? Speed limiters are optional accessories that have nothing to do with driver’s capacity to comply with traffic codes, especially announced speed limits. Good roads, speed radars, and even installation of cameras to check and issue tickets for exceeding speed limits are better and less cumbersome ways to ensure that motorists drive safely and within speed limit.

    Over regulation has a tendency to be counter-productive. Making it compulsory for commercial and non-commercial drivers to install speed limiters on their vehicles smacks of avoidable over regulation and an un-necessary punishment of safe drivers.The new government—executive and legislative—needs to review the functions and powers delegated to agencies. Non-elected administrators should have the power to make laws. In other countries that have considered ways of enforcing speed limits, their legislators, not administrators in parastatals, have initiated discussions that have included public debate on such matters. The culture of outsourcing legislation to agencies needs to come to an end under a Change Regime.The media needs to get interested in interpretative reporting of activities of parastatals while citizens need to insist on proper debate of issues that may affect them. Change is a process that requires all hands on deck.

  • Hepatitis test for FRSC officials in Aba

    Hepatitis test for FRSC officials in Aba

    World Health Organisation (WHO) through a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Centre for Disease and Aid Control has held a Hepatitis B test for officers of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Aba Unit Command.

    The point was made that people should look after their health and eat healthy food at work and home. And for those who work for long hours and expose themselves to the harsh conditions, it is always advisable to routine medical checks. This will keep them from sudden breakdown of their immune system.

    Some members of apara-military group and other security agencies, according to reports, have a higher risk of being ill because they either miss their meals regularly or they don’t eat the appropriate food that would replenish lost nutrients, thereby exposing them to the dangers of having their body system being constantly getting weak.

    The Corps Marshal, FRSC, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi recently said that he wanted to work with healthy corps personnel, urging his personnel to always go for medical tests in order to obtain data about their health status.

    That apparently was the reason why staff of the corps in Aba, when the opportunity came calling, turned out en mass during a medical test to participate conducted for its officials by representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to test them for hepatitis.

    Out of the 32 persons that participated in the exercise, the result of the test has it that 31 corps personnel were declared free from the virus while one of them had a trace of it.

    •Dr. Oche Simon making a presentation to Mrs. Okora Awassam, Aba Unit Commander FRSC while D. A Eshalomi of the Operations unit (middle) watches.
    •Dr. Oche Simon making a presentation to Mrs. Okora Awassam, Aba Unit Commander FRSC while D. A Eshalomi of the Operations unit (middle) watches.

    Dr. Simon Oche of Centre for Disease and Aid Control, an NGO with WHO in a chat after the exercise said, “We celebrated World Hepatitis Day last year and after that we  decided to extend our programmes to 15 most affected states which by our statistics Abia State is listed among the 15 states with hepatitis B. We have treated people on this and for those who wish to be tested, we will also give them the opportunity to be screened which is being done free of charge.

    ”That is what we just did here; to educate them on the hepatitis and at the end of the lecture, we tested about 32 of them and after the test, we will be coming back again for immunization. Anyone who is infected, we don’t vaccinate them. It is only those who are negative that can be vaccinated. This vaccine can last in the body for at least for 10years while some people can be protected for up to 15 years. Out of the 32 persons that did the test, we only have one case and it’s just a trace of it; it means that the person treated it (hepatitis B) but the treatment was inconclusive and not threatening at this stage. It is one of the best results that we have in FRSC so far.

    “For now, we are covering Para-militaries (Road Safety, Police, Immigration and among others). We also have some of our colleagues who cover schools, while some others cover other organizations including churches. We started almost a year now and it will end in 2016 for FRSC. The programme is too important because if at the end of this test, if you are negative, you take the immunization and the moment that one is vaccinated, it gives the person the immunity against it in the sense that if the person gets in contact with this hepatitis, the person can’t have it”.

    He named too much alcohol intake, eating and drinking of contaminated foods and water as part of the major causes of hepatitis B and advised people who take alcohol without eating properly to desist from such and even when one should take it, must not drink to get tipsy.

    In her contribution, Okora Awassam, the Aba Unit Commander thanked the medical team for coming and advised her staff to imbibe the culture of regularly checking their health status in order to stay healthy adding that it is only healthy personnel functions optimally.

    “I think it is a good programme because health is wealth. It is better for one to know his or her health status than for one to be taken unawares when it has gotten out of hand and cannot be treated any more.

    “It is always better to get tested for whatever disease that is plaguing the country or the society where one finds him or herself at a particular time so that if anyone in your organization is found to have it, it can quickly be treated before it gets out of hand. So, it’s a beautiful experience.

    It is a venture that is welcomed and I think in appreciate it. It is important that Road Safety Corps personnel should participate in this venture because it is not only the public that should go and check their health. Uniformed men, FRSC men in particular should always know their health status because of the hectic way we work; they are always exposed to the sun and heat all the time while patrolling on the road. So it is better and advisable that they should go for whatever type of medical checks that comes up.  It is also very important because if you are sick and you don’t know and you end up dying, you have not gained anything. I don’t play with the health of my workers because that is the only way they can be effective and efficient in the performance of their duties if they are healthy”, Awassam added.

     

  • FRSC cracks down on licence racketeers in Abia

    FRSC cracks down on licence racketeers in Abia

    The Federal Road Safety Corps, Aba Unit has stepped up surveillance to keep driver’s licence fakers out of business.

    The Unit Commander, FRSC Okowa Awassam told our correspondent that the scrutiny became necessary after intelligence showed that racketeers were capitalising on people’s ignorance and desperation to obtain their licence.

    Awassam, who before her appointment, had worked in the operations unit of the corps, warned drivers going for renewal of or new drivers’ licence against patronising touts who would issue them with fake permits.

    The Aba Unit Commander said, “Once you are suspected to be iný possession of a fake driver’s license, the officer that stopped you will collect the licence and input the data on the licence on the system, every information about the person which was taken during capturing will appear on the system if it were genuine, but if it is the one done by fakers, those information will not appear.

    “We have had cases where my officers will stop someone on the road and after checking the licence will discover that it was fake and when the personnel will ask to know how it was obtained, you will discover that it was obtained through the wrong process.

    “Some drivers will try to be confrontational, but when they eventually noticed that what they were having is truly a fake, they will calm down and even ask us how to go about getting a genuine one.

    Awassam while warning that the agency would deal decisively with anyone caught in the act of procuring fake drivers’ license for people also disclosed that they (FRSC) had charged it’s surveillance team to go after the fakers.

    “We are really making progress in our fight against drivers’ license racketeers. Recently, through a driver that took us to the woman that helped him get a drivers’ license which turned out to be fake, ýwe arrested her and took her to the police for proper action. It is just that we were unable to arrest the main culprits, but we are not relenting”, said Aba FRSC unit commander.

    She urged members of the public and Aba residents who wish to have drivers’ license to FRSC and licensing offices in their respective locations to obtain a genuine one and warned those behind the production and issuance of fake license to desist from such unscrupulous and unpatriotic acts or be ready to face the legal consequences of their actions.

    It could be recalled that many unsuspecting drivers and those that wants to cut corners had become victims of drivers license racketeers as reports have it that those who patronised touts at the Aba South drivers’ licensing office end up losing their monies or being issued with fake one, that’s if they were lucky to have their’s produced.

  • FRSC to provide additional 71 drivers’ licence centres

    FRSC to provide additional 71 drivers’ licence centres

    THE Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) yesterday said it will soon create additional 71 centres for drivers’ licence  to increase them to 200.

    The move, according to the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, will assist in tackling some of the challenges encountered by people waiting to be captured.

    Oyeyemi, who spoke at a sensitisation programme organised in partnership with Cleen Foundation on the drivers licence application and renewal procedure, said the corps has renewed its commitment to the reform in the licensing system by investing more in workers’ capacity and development

    He, however, stated low uploading of data, racketeering and slow collection of printed original drivers licence cards as some of the challenges affecting the efficiency of the system. He, however, said the corps is also taking measures to address the isssues.

    “In tackling some of the observed challenges within the system, especially in the area of congestion of people waiting to be captured, we are creating additional 71 centres across the country to the existing 129,” he said.

    The Corps Marshal added that a more efficient distribution system is being put in place in other to ensure that printed permanent licences did not remain at the motor licensing offices without their owners promptly claiming them.

  • Install speed limiter, FRSC urges motorists

    Install speed limiter, FRSC urges motorists

    The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has urged commercial transport operators yet to install a speed limiter in their vehicles to do so before June 1, or face prosecution.

    Its Mowe Unit Commander, Mr Oludare Ogunjobi, gave the charge at a sensitisation for stakeholders on the implementation of the speed limit device, at Obafemi/Owode Local Government Area in Ogun State.

    Ogunjobi said commercial vehicles were expected to have installed the device on or before the deadline, adding that defaulters’ vehicles would be impounded.

    He said the device was introduced to regulate over-speeding which causes accidents.

    Vehicles with the device, he said, would not move beyond the regulated speed limit, no matter the pressure applied on the accelerator.

    Ogunjobi said research has shown that 65 per cent of accidents are caused by over-speeding, with colossal loss of life and property, raising the need for the device for maximum speed control.

    To prevent such fatal crashes, Ogunjobi said it was compulsory for every motorist to for the device.

    The use of a speed limiter, according to Ogunjobi, will guarantee a longer life span for the vehicle and reduce the money spent on fuel and maintenance.

    Ogunjobi urged motorists to support the FRSC campaign, and stop complaining about the N45,000 price for the device.

    Ogunjobi also spoke on the need for vehicle maintenance during the rainy season, urging motorists to take every necessary care while driving during the period.

    He said motorists must ensure their vehicles are in good shape before embarking on any trip during the rain.

    Ogunjobi who noted that lack of maintenance contributes to crashes on the roads, charged motorists to ensure their vehicle’s tyres, brake pads, brake lights, aerial lights, pointers, wind shield wipers and blades, including the headlights are in perfect working condition during and after the rainy season.

    Ogunjobi said they should always turn on their headlights and wipers and reduce their speed whenever it rains.