.
By Nasir Kura
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said on Thursday that it would activate 201 mobile courts and deploy 21,000 personnel to try defaulters and maintain roads across the country ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Addressing State House correspondents in Abuja, the FRSC Corps Marshal, Mr. Boboye O. Oyeyemi, said those to be sanctioned are are drivers with overload passengers, those driving oneway and those driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, among others.
He said the festive season operations have been divided into three segments – pre-Christmas, post-Christmas and post New Year, and would run from December 15, 2018 to January 15, 2019.
He said the mobile courts would prosecute stubborn drivers who violate traffic rules resulting in traffic gridlock.
The FRSC boss said the Nigerian Air Force has allocated two helicopters for aerial surveillance during the period, adding that over 1,000 patrol vehicles have been deployed.
He said FRSC offices would be shutdown nationwide except for drivers license officers to ease traffic on the roads.
He said: “For the end of the year patrols, we have divided the operations into three segments, that is pre-Christmas, post-Christmas and post New Year. So this will stretch from December 15th to January 15th and we are deploying over 21,000 personnel to all critical corridors with over 1,000 patrol vehicles, including recovery vehicles, ambulances and bikes.
“The country has been partitioned into 52 critical corridors across the country. The focus for the end of the year is that in conjunction with FERMA, FERMA is carrying out palliative measures on all the critical areas on the highways to ensure free flow of traffic. Our principle responsibility during this period is to ensure free flow of traffic, that could mean that as you are traveling you may likely experience some gridlock in one or two areas in the cause of the construction work is going on.
“We are not talking about only enforcement; we are talking about the issue of getting the travelers getting home safely. Also, the recovery vehicles have been deployed to critical locations and we are also working with private tow trucks operators so that peradventure if there is any breakdown of any vehicle or truck, immediately we will be able to remove all these obstructions which normally lead to gridlock.
“We are not saying there will be no crash but the focus is that let there be zero death. If there is any crash, we will have our advanced life support ambulances deployed.
“We also want to ensure members of the public to make use of our toll free number, 122 peradventure they get to a crash scene before our personnel gets there, they should be able to call 122 and inform us so that we can deploy appropriate personnel and the required vehicle or whatever is required. I want to assure the public that we will be able to reduce the stress for the travellers.”
