By; IBRAHIM ADAMU, Kaduna.
Nigeria has recorded within four years, 59 VIP crashes involving senior political and government officials on the nation’s highways.
The figure was given by Sector Commander Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Kaduna Command Kabiru Yusuf Nadabo at a press briefing marking commencement of 2023 Ember Months Safety Awareness Campaign over the weekend in Kaduna.
Nadaabo, while attributing the sad development to over speeding and flouting of safety regulations, urged Nigerians, particularly drivers of very important persons and motorists in general to be safety conscious, especially in the last quarter of the year, which according to him, the nation’s highways would record sharp increase in vehicular traffic due to the upcoming Yuletide season occasioned by Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
He said this year’s ember months safety management campaign would kick off from Ahmadu Bello Stadium on Monday September 9, 2023 and heralded with far-reaching street walks to motor parks, markets, haulage business hubs among others, stating the readiness and determination of the corps under his command to take message of safe driving to the grassroots to ensure seamless and enjoyable festivities in 2023.
In order to have an effective campaign, the Sector Commander disclosed that religious, political and opinion leaders would be engaged and coopted to partake in activities marking the ember months campaign, adding that services of entertainers would also be utilized to add colour to the event.
While stressing the imperative and importance of the intensive enlightenment campaigns in all ember months by the corps, Nadabo lamented poor safety consciousness amongst drivers, which he noted has caused the loss of many lives, incapacitating several others.
He said due to high frequency of vehicles expected to ply the country’s highways begining from September, the likelihood of having frequent crashes would be more except drivers and travellers adhere to safety measures, hence the need for massive enlightenment by all stakeholders to prevent carnage on roads.
Nadabo, while lamenting the intent of some politicians to cause inter service rivalry between the corps and state-owned traffic agency, the Corps Marshall reiterated his resolve and those of men under his command to continue to carry out assigned duties for public good and safety.
“Nobody can intimidate us because what we do is for public good and you fullfil our oath and pledge to sacrifice ourselves to ensure safe highways and timely rescue of accident victims to hospitals so they can be saved by medics.
“Out of 26 states that created traffic agencies, Kaduna, Kano and Lagos are where we’re having issues with which should not be happening if public interest is our concern.
“We have been up and doing since 1988 with our ember month campaigns as pioneers of this initiative of giving special attention to traffic and safety issues in this season because frequency of accidents on our highways gives us sleepless nights and are determined to look for ways out of the menace.
“We are so much concerned about insecurity and neglecting another killer of our people which is auto accident on our highways.
“It is high time We paid more attention to auto crashes which have become the order of the day on our roads due unsafe driving, bad roads and poorly maintained vehicles, ” he said.
