Okon Bassey in Uyo
The presidential approval and directive for the October 1, 2016 implementation date and commencement of speed limiting device across the country would not be shifted, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) warned wednesday.
The Corps Marshall of the commission, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, gave the warning in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital at a public enlightenment forum for transport stakeholders in the state.
Oyeyemi who spoke through the Assistant Corps Marshall in charge of Policy, Research and Statistics, Dr. Michael Kayode Olagunju, expressed worry over the amazing statistics of road crashes in Nigeria highways.
He said the speed limiting device would save Nigerians the embarrassment on the highways and loss of lives.
The corps marshall hinted that in 2015 alone over 12,077 road crashes were recorded out of which 5,400 people representing 68percent were said to have died as a result of over speeding alone.
According to him, most of the crashes would have been avoided if appropriate safety measures were being adopted by the motorists when plying on the highways.
He maintained that accident are caused not made, adding, “most of the road crashes are preventable, if we are able to bring down the speed, we will be saving a lot of lives on our highways.”
The state Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Godwin Ntukude, who said there is nothing wrong in the implementation of the speed limiting device called for a technical session with all stakeholders to enlighten them on the nitty-gritty of the policy
“There is no policy introduced by government that will not have a positive effect on lives of the people, but let us have technical session with experts to ascertain whether it can be installed on an expired (Tokunbo) vehicles or not.
“It is importance for us to know this so that the good policy could not render otherwise in another way,” he asserted.
The Public Relations Officer of the corps in the state, Mr. Godgive Uwem, threw more light on the importance of speed limiting device explaining that by the introduction of the device Nigerian was only joining countries like Japan, Australia Sweden and United States that had already introduced the policy already in their countries.
The zonal commanding officer in charge of operations, Mr. J. Aremu, had in a welcome speech, called on all the stakeholders to key into the new policy in order to minimise road crashes on the highways.
