Following the imperative of achieving a crash and hitch free 2020 Sallah celebration, the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has approved massive deployment of personnel across the nation’s roads and directed Commanding Officers to collaborate with COVID-19 Task Force teams and security agencies to ensure maximum compliance with established laws, orders and directives on physical distancing, compulsory use of face mask and restrictions of movement across states. The special patrol is to commence from 22 Huly , to 30 July, 2020.
According to Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Public Education Officer, the directives of the Corps Marshal were contained in an operational order released to field Commands where the Corps Marshal maintained that massive deployment of personnel to ensure free flow of traffic, prompt removal of obstructions and timely rescue services in the event of any road traffic crash are critical to the realisation of a safe motoring environment during the season and beyond.
The Corps Marshal outlined the modus operandi for a successful 2020 Eid-el-fitri celebration and gave Commanding Officers matching orders to enforce without compromise all established laws and orders on safe road use.
While charging them on the need to give maximum effect to Presidential Orders, Oyeyemi revealed that the objectives of the special patrol is to achieve among others, the following;
a. Compliance with protocol and guidelines set up by the various states with respect to COVID-19
b. Ensure that the Presidential Orders on interstate travels and restrictions are diligently enforced with all sense of professionalism and civility
c. Curtail the occurrence of Road Traffic Crashes within the period and provide prompt rescue services, when necessary.
d. Ensure full deployment of patrol vehicles, ambulances, tow trucks, bikes and other patrol equipment
e. Collaborate with security agencies to ensure effective traffic management, increased visibility on the highways, and strict enforcement of overloading and physical distancing violations amongst commuters.
He warned that the special patrol was necessitated by the upsurge in road traffic volume and the rise in COVID-19 cases Nationwide. The strategies deployed are anchored on achieving a decline in transmission of the virus amongst commuters and the need to mitigate the attendant risks of road traffic crashes.
As such, the Corps Marshal further instructed Commanding Officers to apprehend any vehicle caught in the act of overloading their vehicles with both persons and goods. The traffic offenders are to be prosecuted in the already established mobile courts across the federation.
He therefore called on all Nigerians to be at alert, cautious and exhibit required road discipline before, during and after the celebrations.
