FRSC COUNSELS CORPORATE EXECUTIVES ON SAFETY

THE Lagos State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Jonah Agwu, has urged policy makers to come up with road safety measures that would reduce the rate of accidents on Nigerian roads.

Agwu gave this charge during the 2009 Ember Month Conference/Rally organised by the FRSC Badagry Unit at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Topo, Badagry. The theme of this year’s campaign was Corporate Citizens Say No To Road Traffic Crashes.

Represented by the Head of Operations, Lagos State Sector Commander Hygenus Omeje, Agwu berated some chief executives and employers whom he said sometimes lord it over their drivers, thereby, limiting their initiative.

This, he said is dangerous.

In his lecture titled: Executives as Catalysts of Safe Driving Culture on the Road, the Sector Commander urged corporate executives to use their offices to make positive changes on the roads and to impact positive road safety culture on the society.

On how the FRSC can assist in getting the government’s attention to the problem of bad road which is also a contributive factor to road crashes, he said: "I think we are doing much. But you must understand that there is division of labour and areas of jurisdiction. Everybody has his own responsibility. It does not fall within our purview to build the roads or to maintain the roads so to speak.

"But all we can do is when we identify those black spots, it’s our responsibility to make recommendation to the government or the appropriate agency. If it is the Federal Ministry of Works and housing, we write them to do something about it? Yes it is by way of recommendation. But it does not fall within our purview to carry latrite and go and start filling the places. The law does not just permit us to do that".

He also disclosed steps the FRSC adopts in sanitising the agency.

"Road safety officials are not angels from heaven. They were recruited from the society. Now, whatever level of corruption you observe among road safety personnel, is a reflection of that same society where they came from.

"We are not claiming that we are angels all through, no. We know that there are bad eggs. But one thing I can tell you is that there are measures that the Corps always puts in place to checkmate all these excesses. There is always a surveillance team that moves round to monitor these boys from Headquarters and even the Lagos command. And if anybody is caught, the person will have to face the music. You’ll face the room trial and if found wanting, he will definitely be sacked," he stated.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Badagry Unit Commander, R. O. J. Onamusi said the rationale behind the concept of unit’s 2009 Ember month campaign, is to reduce to the a barest minimum the rate of auto crashes during the last four months of the year.