No fewer than 21,000 officials of the road safety corps, including 1000 patrol vehicles are to be deployed across Nigerian roads in the festive season, Corp Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi has disclosed.
The operations will commence in earnest from December 15th, 2018 and terminate on January 15th, 2019.
Both the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) are jointly driving the process.
Oyeyemi while briefing State House correspondents on Thursday in Abuja, noted that the country has been partitioned into 52 corridors with 201 mobile courts as well as 40 road camps to be erected nationwide.
He said vehicles found to be overloaded will be impounded, while drivers who fail the acute vision test and those found to be under the influence of alcohol would not be allowed to continue their journey since they may pose threats to other road users.
The Corp Marshall, however, advised travelers to plan their journey early enough as experience has shown that the roads are usually congested because of high vehicular traffic during this period.
“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 a free flow of traffic.
“Our principal responsibility during this period is to ensure the 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,” Oyeyemi noted.
The Corp Marshall also explained that the agency would lobby the Nigerian Airforce to make available two helicopters for air patrol, including towing trucks to clear the road of any obstruction during the yuletide.
His words, “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 travelers”.
