The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has reiterated its commitment to the strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulations in 2020 to ensure the safety of lives and property in the country.
Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal of FRSC, made this known at a news conference on its just-concluded nationwide end of year operations on Wednesday in Abuja.
Oyeyemi added that such enforcement would enhance the corps mission of drastically reducing the rate of accidents and fatalities in 2020.
He, however, said that education without enforcement was entertainment, hence the need to boost awareness in terms of advocacy and enlightenment for road traffic administration and safety management.
The corps marshal said that the corps had embarked on advocacy and educational enlightenment for the past 32 years, yet there is ignorance on the part of road users especially in terms of seat belts.
He said that the country witnessed improved road safety management at the end of the year’s special patrol operation.
Oyeyemi called for more enlightenment to ensure the sustenance of recorded achievement.
“Surprisingly in Lagos axis, none of the drivers tested positive to the alcoholises and breathalyser test in terms of drugs usage; this led to the procurement of more alcoholises and breathalyser to be used this year.
“We are in partnership with NURTW, all motor parks, and we will be deploying our personnel to all major motor parks this year so that before the drivers leave the park, they would all be tested.
“We have also directed organised transport sectors, like ABC transport to ensure that their drivers undergo the alcoholism and breathalyzer test before and after every journey,’’ he said.
According to him, this will ensure the safety of lives and property of road users including those walking, those riding and those driving.
Oyeyemi said that the corps would focus on sanitising the roads against avoidable hazards across the federation.
“This means we need to improve on our level of advocacy to get people to understand why they must do the right thing; to checkmate the usage of phone while driving and disobedient to seat belt usage.
“We would improve on the enforcement level, embark more on motorised patrol and use of communication gadgets to fish out any driver if found guilty,“ he said.