ONITSHA – The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) mobile court on Tuesday convicted 104 road traffic offenders during a special inter-state patrol and enlightenment exercise within the Ozubulu-Okaji-Ihiala-Mgbidi-Njaba axis of Onitsha-Owerri road.
The traffic offenders, mostly commercial bus drivers, were convicted for offences ranging from worn-out tyres, non-use of seatbelts, non-availability of caution signs, overloading, lack of passengers’ manifest etc.
Speaking on the exercise tagged “Ember Months Signal’’, at Ozubulu near Onitsha; the FRSC Sector Commander in Imo State, Mr Yusuff Salami, said that the inter-state patrol involved officers and men from Ihiala unit command in Anambra and Njaba unit command in Imo.
“We have already entered the “ember’’ months and in ember months, people have a wrong belief that when the ember months come people must die.
“Because they believe that, maybe there is a demon on the road that is killing people; since the establishment of the FRSC, we believe that there is no demon or blood sucking demon on the road killing the people.
“The problem that we are encountering is that in ember months, commencing from September, October, November to December, there is increase in vehicular and human movement on the road. [eap_ad_1] “You have all sorts of people, all sorts of drivers that are not following the laid down rules and regulations on the usage of the road.
“Hence, once we come to that period we intensify our efforts in enforcement activities and public enlightenment.
“Just to increase awareness as well as enforcing the rules and regulations so that the rate of the road crashes come to the barest minimum.
“And it has become our ritual and we have been doing it year-in, year-out and we have been seeing positive results.’’
Also, the FRSC Sector Commander in Anambra State, Mr Sunday Ajayi, said that the exercise would help both sector commands to achieve the FRSC 2014 goals, which is reduction of road traffic crashes by 15 per cent and reduction of road fatality by 25 per cent.
Ajayi said that the commands would make the exercise a continuous one for the benefit of road users within the Onitsha-Owerri road corridor.
The FRSC Unit Commander in Ihiala, Mr Nnamdi Asanya, commended the resilience of the officers and men of Ihiala and Njaba unit commands for defying the rain to carry out the inter-state patrol.
Asanya noted that the exercise was a huge success with no fewer than 250 motorists and commuters enlightened so far. (NAN)
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