*Emphasizes collaboration with sister agencies, COVID-19 taskforce teams
EHIME ALEX, Lagos
The Federal Road Safety Corps says it is imperative to achieve a crash and hitch free 2020 Sallah celebration.
To this end, the Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has approved massive deployment of personnel and directed Commanding Officers to collaborate with COVID-19 Task Force teams and security agencies across the country to ensure maximum compliance with established laws and orders and all directives on physical distancing, compulsory use of face mask and restrictions of movement across the states.
The special patrol, the FRSC said commenced today May 22 till May 30, 2020.
According to Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Public Education Officer, in a statement on Friday, the directives of the Corps Marshal was contained in an administrative instruction released to field Commands.
He said, “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 is critical to the realisation of a safe motoring environment during the season and beyond”.
Kazeem also said that the “Corps Marshal outlined the modus operandi for a successful 2020 Eid-el-fitri celebration and gave Commanding Officers matching order to enforce without compromise all established laws and orders on safe road use”.
According to him, the Corps Marshal charged them on the need to give maximum effect to Presidential Orders, and revealed that the objectives of the special patrol are to achieve among others:
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 ate 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
d. Ensure full deployment of patrol vehicles, ambulances, tow trucks, bikes and other patrol equipment
e. Collaborate with security agencies, ensure effective traffic management, increased visibility on the highways, and strict enforcement of overloading and physical distancing amongst commuter.
He stressed that the special patrol was necessitated by the upsurge in traffic volume and the rise in COVID-19 cases Nationwide.
He said, “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, he said the Corps Marshal further instructed Commanding Officers to apprehend any vehicle caught in the act of overloading of vehicles in both persons and goods.
“The offenders are to be tried in already established mobile courts across the federation”, Kazeem stated.
He added that the Corps Marshal therefore called on all Nigerians to be at alert, cautious and imbibe all safety ideals before, during and after the celebration.
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