By Theodore Opara

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has warned that it will soon start impounding articulated vehicles and prosecuting truck drivers over improper container-laden articulated vehicles on Nigerian roads.

FRSC Zonal Commander, Zone Two, comprising Lagos and Ogun states, Mr. Eseobung Akpabio, stated this at a meeting with members of Association of Maritime Truck Ownmers, AMARTO at his Ojodu office recently.

According to the zonal commander, the Corps is worried over the high incidents of deaths resulting from felled trucks and container and has decided to meet with members of AMARTO, to find lasting solution to the problem.

File: Trucks on the road

He said: “The purpose of the roundtable is to discuss the growing concern over container-laden articulated vehicles”.
“From Lagos to Ogun and other roads across the nation, containers fall off from articulated vehicles killing innocent road users and this must be checked before it gets out of hands,” he said.

He recalled many incidents where entire families have been wiped out by containers which fell off from articulated truck and the recent incident where 12 students were killed in similar situation. He however, warned that the Federal Road Safety Corps will not like to commence impounding of these vehicles and prosecution of their drivers without first meeting with their association, which it hope would play a major role in curtailing the excesses of its members.

To this end, he said the Corps will commence operation this month after meeting with the container driver to educate them on the danger of not latching their containers properly before leaving seaports.

The Assistant Corps Commander agreed with the leaders of the association that an awareness campaign will be carried out after which total enforcement shall be applied. He asked the association to provide the list of all their drivers to the FRSC for scrutiny.

“We want to have the list of all drivers in your association to find out if they are properly licenced to drive,” he said. He also noted that FRSC will bring their doctors to check the state of health of the truck drivers.

He also demanded that the association should key into the FRSC minimum safety standard and that they should discourage their members from using tokunbo tyres.

The zonal commander who also noted that the operation would be total hinted that vehicle inspection would officers will be involved in the operation and any unroadworthy truck will be banned from plying the highways.

…Redeploys 40 senior officers

Further to its re-positioning process for effective service delivery, the management of the Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC has approved the redeployment of 40 senior officers, among whom is Ahmed Hassan, who is now the Deputy Corps Marshal in charge of Special Marshals and Partnership Department at the National Headquarters, Abuja.

Details of the recent appointments indicate that SIX Assistant Corps Marshals and 33 Corps Commanders were affected in the exercise which witnessed the redeployment of new Zonal Commanding Officers and Sector Commanders across the various formations of the Corps.

According to the Corps Public Education Officer, Corps Commander Imoh Etuk, “the redeployments which is coming on the heels of recently decoration of newly promoted senior officers of the Corps with their new ranks, also witnessed the movement of Corps Commander Susan Ajenge from the FCT Sector Command to Niger State as Sector Commander while Corps Commander Sunday Oghenekaro, former Sector Commander of Rivers State, moves over to the FCT in the same capacity”.

Further details of the postings indicate that Corps Commander Chidi Nkwonta, who has been on secondment, is now the Sector Commander, Benue State, while Corps Commander Bisi Kazeem, formerly, Head of Sports Section at the Training, Standards and Certification Department, is now in charge of Media Intelligence and Strategy in the office of the Corps Marshal.

In the same vein, former Corps Provost Officer, Corps Commander Edward Zamber, is now the Sector Commander of Ondo State while the Deputy Corps Provost Officer, Corps Commander Ayodele Kumapayi is the new Sector Commander of River State Sector Command.