LAGOS ASSEMBLY CLERK CHARGES FRSC TO FOCUS MORE ON ROAD SAFETY
•Lagos State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr.Babatunde Farinloye, Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Barrister Olalekan Onafeko; and the Deputy Clerk, Mr. Taiwo Ottun.
The Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Barrister Olalekan Onafeko, has charged the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to increase its attention on ensuring enduring safety on roads.
Onafeko, who made this demand when the Lagos State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr. Babatunde Farinloye, visited him at the Assembly complex recently, however, commended the corps for delivering on its mandate, through surveillance and monitoring of vehicles to avert accidents on the roads.
The Clerk also appealed to the Sector Commander to look into the reports of alleged harassments of Lagosians by his men on the roads, arguing that the primary purpose of the corps was to provide safety.
He further suggested that enlightenment and education programmes should be embarked upon to teach motorists the best ways to use roads.
“There’s no doubt that the FRSC is delivering on its mandate and I commend you for that, but Nigeria is still ranked among the countries with high mortality rate on our roads.
“This is coupled with harassments of citizens of Lagos State by your men, which is too rampant. We’ll be happy if you look into this with the view to correcting the anomaly to save lives on the roads. You also need to intensify effort at educating motorists on compliance with traffic regulations,” the Clerk urged.
He noted that citizens now have the impression that FRSC is deviating from the primary purpose for which the corps was established, just as he lamented that giving the body a revenue target poses a great danger to safety on the roads.
While assuring the FRSC of the Assembly’s collaboration, Onafeko urged all traffic enforcement agencies to be civil in their operations to achieve success.
Earlier, Mr. Farinloye had solicited the assistance of the House of Assembly on the activities of urchins, otherwise known as “area boys,” particularly on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, driving against traffic, engaging in indiscriminate parking and hawking on the roads.
He said such activities have always impeded free flow of traffic and posed security threats on the roads.
He therefore appealed for drastic measures in form of legislation, while pointing out that interventions of the House of Assembly, in this regard, would go a long way in curbing street trading and recklessness of commercial bus drivers on the roads.
He explained that there would be free flow of traffic when all the bottlenecks are removed from the roads.
“I will like to appeal to the House of Assembly for a legislation on the activities of urchins on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, street traders and drivers of commercial buses. Then, the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) officials are also called upon to ensure street trading is not allowed according to the law.
“When all these are taken care of, then sanity will be restored on our roads,” Farinloye said.
In his response to allegation of charging exorbitant fines, the Sector Commander clarified that the Corps charges are lesser than other traffic enforcement agencies.
