Christmas: FG to Ensure Safety on Roads, Sanction Erring Drivers

The federal government has directed the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to ensure that the roads are motorable for people travelling during the festive seasons.

This was made known to journalists in a joint briefing yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, by the two agencies.

The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Mr Boboye Oyeyemi has said that the commission has put the necessary mechanism in place to ensure hitch-free vehicular movement during the Christmas and New Year period, warning that it will not hesitate to punish any recalcitrant drive who breach the traffic rule.

This is even as the managing director of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Eng. Nurudeen Rafindadi has said that the Federal Ministry of Works and FERMA have identified 353 roads across the federation that need to be repaired urgently to enable motorists and commuters travel with ease during the festive period.

Oyeyemi said that the FRSC would prosecute all traffic offenders at the various mobile courts that are strategically located along the major roads in the country.

On overloading, the Corps Marshal said, “It is part of what we will be prosecuting at the mobile courts nationwide, it is a major problem but we will not give up. It is sad what we see on the Abuja-Kaduna road, where human beings are being put in the booth with goats, rams. Why won’t you have an outbreak of diseases?”

He said that the FRSC would appeal to the magistrate courts to press for maximum punishment for all those drivers involved in any form of traffic violation.

Oyeyemi said, “We have enough personnel and recruitment is still going on. Mr President has shown more passion and support to us, so I as the head have no excuse for not delivering to ensure the stress is reduced for road users.”

“For the end of the year patrols, we have divided the operations into three segments, that is pre-Christmas, post-Christmas and post New Year.”

So this will stretch from December 15th to January 15th and we are deploying over 21,000 personnel to all critical corridors with over 1,000 patrol vehicles, including recovery vehicles, ambulances and the bikes.

The country has been partitioned into critical 52 corridors across the country. The focus for the end of the year is that in conjunction with FERMA, FERMA is carrying out palliative measures on all the critical areas on the highways to ensure a free flow of traffic,” he added.

Also speaking, the FERMA managing director, Nurudeen Rafindadi said that in addition to the major construction works that are being done by the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in the roads, the agency has identified a total of 353 critical roads that need palliative measures specifically during this period.

In order to realise the goal, Rafindadi said, the agency has been assigned 16 critical and prominent roads that need to be addressed immediately within the period.

“The agency has put in place an implementation plan for the maintenance and repair of these identified federal roads as well as other roads that are frequently used by motorists especially during this period even the roads that are outside the ministry’s jurisdiction,” he added.

He said that efforts have been made towards the deployment of resources and personnel for the repair of these roads that have been assigned to FERMA.

The FERMA boss said, a lot of the repairing works are concentrated around 16 major routes: Oyo-Ibadan road in Ogun State, Minna-Tegina road in Niger State, Sheda -Abaji road on the FCT/Kogi State, Abaji-Kotonkarfe road in Kogi State, Itakpe -Federal College of Education Road around Okene in Kogi State, Agbo-Asaba road in Delta State, sections along Benin -Warri road in Delta State, Lokoja-Ajaokuta road in Kogi State, Itobe-Ayangba-Ankpa -Otukpa road in Kogi State, Uyo-James town road in Akwa Ibom State, Ogoja -Katsina Ala road in Cross River State, Biu road in Gombe State, Damaturu-Mauduguri road in Yobe and Borno State, Bauchi-Jos -Akwanga roads in Plateau and Nasarawa states, Bauchi-Potiskum road in Bauchi and Yobe State; Katsina – Jibia road in Katsina State.