The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FRSC

  • FRSC commander urges compliance with traffic rules

    Road users have been urged to comply with the traffic rules to bring crashes on the roads to zero level this year.

    The Mowe Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Assistant Corps Commander (ACC) Oludare Ogunjobi, made the plea during an interview with The Nation at his office on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Mowe, an Ogun State suburb.

    Eradication of crashes, he said, would be achieved only if road users, neither motorists nor pedestrians, comply with safety rules.

    He said FRSC’s vision for 2015 is to ensure crash-free roads, noting that its statutory functions are to ensure safety on the highways, to strategise on ways to minimise or eradicate accidents and educate motorists and the public on the importance of discipline on the highways.

    Ogunjobi thanked God for the reduction of crashes across the country during the last yuletide, especially on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway. He said the feat was achieved through the massive deployment of the FRSC’s personnel and application of some techniques, which include regular visits of his officers to the motor parks in the area, robust public campaigns/enlightenment of drivers and passengers, zero tolerance with full enforcement of traffic laws.

    Public enlightenment without enforcement, according to Ogunjobi, is just a mere drama, saying:  “He made it difficult to any overloaded vehicle to pass the road before or during the festive period.”

    Other techniques, he mentioned, were: “Regular campaigns beyond the road programme, especially checking of drivers’ health); pre-trip inspection (that is, checking of vehicles’ conditions) before allowing them to embark on journeys; passengers watch programme; that is, officers would dress on mufti as passengers, board a vehicle at a park, pay fares and monitor the drivers.’’

    If he discovered any disobedience to traffic laws, he would order the driver’s arrest.

    Ogunjobi said he instituted a zero tolerance policy on extortion/bribery for his personnel through patrols by a surveillance team.

    He said he always rewards his men for effectiveness and efficiency.

    He urged motorists to cooperate with FRSC and other traffic managers to ensure the safety of lives and property.

    He also urged them to shun the following: wrong overtaking, over-speeding, dangerous driving, making or receiving calls while driving, harzadous parking.

  • FRSC men’s wives get group

    FRSC men’s wives get group

    APPARENTLY emulating spouses of military and police officers, wives of officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have launched their own association – the Road Safety Officers’ Wives Association (ROSOWA).

    No fewer than 200 of them converged on Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on January 3, for a get-together.

    At the Ogun State Sector Command of the FRSC venue of the event were the women and their children.

    To lively up the day and give the kids a sense of belonging, singing, dancing and quiz competitions were organised as part of the activities.

    The Commander in-charge of the Lagos/Ogun Zonal Command of the FRSC, Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM), Godwin Ogagaoghene, accompanied by his wife, Hope, chaired the event.

    The chairperson of the event’s organising committee, Mrs. Adekunbi Adetunji, said the gathering was to bring together in a social gathering, the children, who rarely have the opportunity to sit with their fathers due to the work schedule.

    “This is to strengthen love and unity among the officers’ wives and children. And to pass messages across to the families of those that had lost their beloved ones due to crashes, that they are remembered,” she said.

    She expressed gratitude to God for the success of the event despite all the challenges her committee went through and to Mrs Ogagaoghene for throwing her weight behind the idea.

    ROSAWA, as she said, is a non-profit and non-governmental organisation, aimed at promoting goodwill, friendship, socio-cultural opportunity of its members.

    Mrs. Adetunji, said the association, would afford members the platform to interact in a way that would be beneficial to their families and the less-privileged in the society.

    Mr. Ogagaoghene congratulated the women for their efforts and urged them to stand as pillars of support to their spouses, especially when away on duty.

    He urged them to remain focus on welfare programmes that could benefit women, youths, children and the less-privileged.

  • FRSC vows strict enforcement of traffic rules

    FRSC vows strict enforcement of traffic rules

    THE Corps Marshall and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Boboye Oyeyemi, has promised aggressive enforcement of traffic rules and regulations this year.

    Oyeyemi said appropriate sanctions would be meted out to traffic violators to deter them.

    He spoke in Asaba, Delta State, during an assessment of operations in parts of the Southsouth and Southeast geo-political zones, as travellers are returning to their places of work and business after the Christmas and the New Year festivities.

    The corps marshal launched the 2014 ember months’ special patrol in Kaduna on December, 19, 2014, code-named:”Operations Zero Tolerance for Road Traffic Crashes”.

    He also embarked on aerial surveillance through air support provided by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

    His Special Assistant on Media, Sani Abdullahi, in a statement, said Oyeyemi took off from Abuja with his monitoring team yesterday, as part of the second stage of the operation.

    Abdullahi said the team monitored traffic on the Abuja-Lokoja and Okene-Auchi road in Edo State before proceeding to Asaba in Delta State.

    He said the corps marshal received situation reports from relevant commanding officers along the corridors.

    After the exercise, Oyeyemi expressed satisfaction with the level of commitment shown by the FRSC operatives while carrying out traffic operations.

    He urged them to sustain the tempo of patrols in the New Year.

    His words: “While I acknowledge the commitment shown by the FRSC personnel and support received from other agencies, it is pertinent to restate that we would sustain the tempo of enforcement this year.”

  • FRSC: 120 died in road crashes at Yuletide

    FRSC: 120 died in road crashes at Yuletide

    ONE hundred and twenty persons were killed in road crashes nationwide between December 19 and 28, according to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

    The figure, FRSC said, translated to 42 per cent reduction when compared to 2013 figure of 208, within the same period.

    The Corps Public Education Officer, Imoh Etuk, said this yesterday in a statement on the FRSC yuletide patrol in Abuja.

    He said: “The reduction in figures between 2013 and 2014 was a fall-out of the Corps’ massive deployment of personnel and logistics along critical corridors, based on intelligence derived from 2013 yuletide operations.”

    The corps said it also recorded 48 per cent reduction in road traffic crashes within the period, which stood at 193, in comparison with 368 cases in 2013.

    The FRSC added that a 53 per cent reduction was also recorded in injuries in 2014, with 733 injured persons as against the 2013 figure of 1,564.

  • Seven die in Kogi road accident

    Seven die in Kogi road accident

    •13 injured

    Seven persons died yesterday and 13 others sustained injuries in an accident at Gidan-Bassa village on the Lokoja-Ajaokuta highway in Kogi State.

    Eyewitness said the accident occurred when the driver of a Toyota Hiace bus overtook another vehicle dangerously and rammed into a Corolla car, killing seven people on the spot.

    The 13 others in the vehicles were seriously injured.

    The Kogi State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Godwin Omiko, confirmed the accident.

    He said it involved a Toyotal Hiace bus, with registration number AKL73YP, and a Toyota Corolla car, marked AA264SNA.

    The FRSC sector commander said 20 people were involved in the accident, adding that seven died while 13 others were injured.

    According to him, among the dead were a man, four women and a child.

    Omiko said the bodies of the dead had been deposited at the Kogi Specialist mortuary at Zenith, ASCL and Ankuri hospitals.

    The sector commander said the injured were taken to the same hospitals for treatment.

    He said the accident was caused by wrong overtaking and drunk driving by one of the drivers.

    Omiko added that the belongings of the victims were in the custody of the Ajaokuta Police Command.

  • FRSC’s permanent ‘temporary’ Driver’s Licence

    SIR: When the idea of a new drivers licence was conceived Nigerians had reasons to fear as with any such process in Nigeria.

    Though the era of when any Tom, Dick and Harry whether qualified or not could acquire a drivers licence just sitting in the comfort of their homes can be said to be over, the process of acquiring it still leaves much to be desired.

    Almost a year since I got my temporary drivers licence, I am still to be issued with the permanent one. Yet, a few who applied months after me have gotten theirs. As things are going, I fear that my yet-to-be-issued drivers licence would expire without me even seeing it!

    Curiously, one of the employees of Federal Road Safety Corps feels that considering when my data was captured he was “sure” that my permanent drivers licence should be ready. That those at the Vehicle Inspection Office may not take their time to check “very well”. And true, there are many drivers licence there that their “owners” have not “come” to collect!

    Every two months, I am required to go to the licencing office to renew it. I see the same crowd forced every two months to do the same process. One man with a smile on his face said for almost two years he has been renewing his own. Some who are tired of complaining just shrug it off. Some don’t even bother anymore to check whether their permanent one is ready, but just thrust their paper in front of the person who stamps it for renewal. Equally, the person who stamps it hardly looks up to see the person he is stamping their paper. It is all part of a boring routine.

    The idea of the temporary drivers licence to expire in “60 days” was conceived because it was thought that by that time the permanent one will be ready.

    Perhaps, they can learn something from the voters card. I suggest that subsequent issuance of temporary drivers licence should carry an expiry date that the permanent one would normally carry. After all, what really makes them “temporary” or “permanent” is not actually their dates, but the material they are made of!

    In addition I feel, three years validity for a well “scrutinized” drivers licence is too short. Four years would have been good, but five years would have been better.

    I see the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Boboye Oyeyemi, as a dynamic man, with the right zeal as his predecessor to push for innovations.  I hope though that my permanent driver’s licence would see the light of day before it expires.

     

    • Dr Cosmas Odoemena,

    Lagos

  • FRSC advises motorists on road accidents

    FRSC advises motorists on road accidents

    The Itori Unit Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Fatai Adesina Bakare (ACM), has urged motorists to imbibe attitudes that can prevent road accidents.

    He made the plea at the public enlightenment campaign with the theme: “Road Safety is a shared responsibility; it depends on you and me,” organised by the command in Itori, Ogun State.

    According to him, the programme was organised to sensitise road users against all forms of indiscipline on the roads.

    The unit commander said safety on the road was a primary objective of FRSC, saying the his men had been doing their best to ensure safety of life and properties are guaranteed on the road.

    He said road accidents aren’t caused by spirits but human errors including overloading, over-speeding, use of bad or expired tyres, drinking alcohol before driving, bad health and  distraction among others.

    He appealed to motorists to cooperate with his men in order to eliminate all bad attitudes that encourage road crashes.

    He begged drivers to stop risking peoples’ lives because of their selfishness, adding that many bread winners and young people that can lift up the glory of this great nation had been killed through accident.

  • Yuletide: Road fatalities reduced by 42 per cent

    Yuletide: Road fatalities reduced by 42 per cent

    THE Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) claimed yesterday that about 120 persons were killed in road crashes nationwide between December 19 and 28.

    It added that the figure translates to 42 per cent reduction in fatalities, when compared to last year’s figure of 208, within the same period.

    The Corps Public Education Officer, Imoh Etuk, said yesterday while presenting an update on the FRSC activities.

    According to Etuk, the FRSC also recorded 48 per cent reduction in the number of road crashes within this period, which stood at 193, compare with 368 road crashes in 2013.

    He added that a 53 per cent reduction was also recorded in injuries between December 19 and 28, with 733 injured persons against the 2013 figure, which stood at 1,564.

  • NEMA, FRSC warn drivers against overloading

    NEMA, FRSC warn drivers against overloading

    THE Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have warned motorists against overspeeding and overloading to ensure an accident-free  Christmas celebration today.

    But the FRSC has started arresting drivers of overloaded vehicles.

    Speaking at the Operation Eagle Eye organised by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on  Kaduna-Abuja highway, representative of FRSC Kaduna Zonal Commander, Ibrahim Sarki Abubakar, cautioned against over-speeding during the festive season.

    “We are happy that NEMA always stand by us by helping us to sensitise the people, particularly motorists, against over-speeding  and overloading. These are among the major factors causing accidents on our major roads.

    “We have already started arresting defaulting drivers because we want to have accident-free Christmas season. We commend NEMA for their support,” Abubakar said

    Earlier, NEMA Zonal Coordinator North-West Zone Musa Ilallah said the operation was aimed at showing support for activities of FRSC, especially during the Christmas season.

  • Be careful on the road, FRSC urges students

    The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has advised students to imbibe the attitude of safety as they go home for the Yuletide break. The commission said road safety rules must be observed during the festive period to ensure accident-free season.

    The Commander of Uwan-Esigie Unit of the FRSC, Mr Felix Afoke, said the advice was necessary because many students had been victims of preventable accidents in festive period.

    He said: “This message is a message of safety and it is for everyone. We all have to adhere strictly to it. All road users have their roles to play in ensuring the safety of everyone on the road at a given period. We are issuing this warning because students have started travelling to their respective homes for the holiday.

    “If you find your driver misbehaving while driving, you have a duty to caution him. If the driver refuses, because we know some drivers are naturally recalcitrant, report such driver to our men on the road. Our officials are always on the road.”

    The FRSC Public Education Officer (PEO), Anthony Njemanze, condemned attitude of students whenever drivers were arrested for unsafe driving, saying some had assaulted FRSC officers for making move to stop drivers defaulting road safety rules.

    He cited, where students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) almost lynched FRSC officers in Benin City after they arrested a commercial driver without valid license. He said: “Students can be easily tricked to fight for any cause. We don’t want to encourage this when it comes to road safety.”

    He urged students to be law-abiding and report reckless drivers to the commission’s officers.