The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has reiterated its commitment to ensure safer roads during the “Ember months”.
Boboye Oyeyemi, the Corps Marshal, said this on Friday in Ilorin, while speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of an assessment tour to Kwara.
Oyeyemi said that it was important for the corps to improve on its logistics and personnel, while reawakening the consciousness of road users.
“We started the ember months campaign and this is a nationwide assessment of zonal headquarters to see the level of preparedness towards repositioning the corps for the last four months of the year.
“It is important to improve on the logistics and personnel in critical zones, so that we can reawaken the consciousness of the road users,” he said.
The corps marshal said that one of the major challenges of road safety in the country was gridlock.
“One of the major challenges faced on our roads is gridlocks, because when vehicles breakdown at construction sites or highways, it causes gridlock and delay and it can cause danger on the highways.
“That is why we have come to see how we can effectively deploy heavy duty recovery vehicles to some key and strategic locations to ease gridlock and prompt removal of broken down vehicles along the highways within this axis.
“We want to look at how we can work on the redeployment of ambulances, recovery vehicles and more patrol vehicles so that we can have a hitch free ’ember month’ and end of the year patrol operations,” the corps marshal said.
Oyeyemi appreciated the government for the ongoing construction of federal roads while appealing for road users’ cooperation with the corps for safer roads.
“We have observed a kind of hostility by road users towards the uniformed agencies, we want to appeal to road user to have respect for uniformed agencies.
“Respect them, do not assault road safety officers, comply with road traffic rules and regulations, we need the cooperation of one another so that our roads can be much safer.
“I also want to appeal to both commercial and private vehicle drivers to comply with the PTF guidelines on COVID-19.
“The corps will not compromise on enforcing the COVID-19 guidelines, therefore, we will sustain enforcement on the use of nose masks, physical distancing and other guidelines for commercial and private vehicles,” Oyeyemi said.
The FRSC boss, however, restated the corps commitment to protecting lives and property on the road.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the corps had started the “ember months” campaign on Sept.1.
NAN also reports that the “ember months” were the month of Sept. and the last three months of the year.(NAN)
