The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has deployed 520 personnel including the regular and special marshals to various locations in Cross River to ensure safety during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
This was disclosed by Corp Commander Istifanus Ibrahim, Sector Commander, FRSC Cross River in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Calabar.
NAN reports that the Corp had earlier embarked on sensitisation campaign in parks and around major cities in the state to enlighten the people on the importance of ensuring their safety as they travel during the festive period.
Ibrahim said the Sallah celebration which would be for two days was a public holiday and so, a lot of human and material resources would be on the road.
He said due to the anticipated high volume of vehicular movement, the commission had also deployed three ambulances and tow trucks to seven locations in the state from Ogoja to Calabar.
“FRSC is always proactive when it comes to emergency, we already had a tow truck in Odukpani before now but we are putting in more to ensure that there is no congestion on the roads during the festivities.
“The Calabar Itu road is under construction and we experience a lot of vehicular breakdown on that axis so we have stationed our tow trucks, we have also deployed patrol teams for the purpose of traffic control and emergency response, he said.
FRSC officials sensitising a mini bus driver on Friday in Calabar
Speaking further, the sector commander assured Nigerians of the corp’s commitment in solving the challenges faced by motorists in the area of obtaining driver’s license and number plates.
While appealing to Nigerians to use the corps’s toll free number, 122 and the national emergency number, 112 in the case of an emergency, he added that the new leadership of the commission was assessing the current challenges of the Corp to address them soon.
Similarly, Mr Chibuike Chukwuemeka, a commercial driver in one of the parks in Calabar who spoke to NAN said he was very grateful with the sensitisation carried out by the commission urging that it should be regular.
According to Chukwuemeka, some of the challenges they encountered in their daily work was the deplorable state of the roads between Calabar and Akwa Ibom and the excess luggage carried by some passengers embarking on journeys.
He appealed to the Federal Government to promptly fix the Calabar/Itu road as it was damaging their vehicles and making travelling difficult. (NAN))
By Christian Njoku
