ByDAUD OLATUNJI
ABEOKUTA – The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on Wednesday claimed that ,it has reduced Road Traffic Crashes by 70 per cent in the last six months in Ogun state.
It has also denied the allegation that, the Corps extorted money from motorists plying Lagos-Ibadan expressway,saying that,once an offender is apprehended, he would be issued a ticket, with which he would pay the fine directly to the bank.
Speaking with newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogere unit head of FRSC R2.24, Mr Saddiq Abdularahman, said that, a lot of strategies have been adopted to ensure road crashes were reduced to the minimum level.
He said "we are working to meet up with decade of action of 2020 by reducing RTC by 50 per cent which is the "Decade of Action of the United Nations".
" Once we apprehend offenders, we book them, we issue ticket, they go to bank and pay, and we don't collect cash.
`Going to patrol, you must not go out with more than N200 and before you go out, you must declare the amount of money in your pocket with the number quoted.
"10 kobo above that money declared before you go for patrol, is going to be counted against that personnel.
"So, whoever, that is caught with cash in his pocket, definitely he will have something to explain and will face the music.
"The corps is very serious about discipline because when an officer compromises the standard you and I know what the consequences will be.
"It can lead to serious disaster or road traffic crash, so we can't but just be up and doing to make sure that our officers don't take bribe and also perform their duties as expected of them.
Saddiq, who identified Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as the major transit point of fuel tankers, noted that the unit had been working tirelessly to decongest the point in order to ease vehicular movements.
"Ogun state government at their own angle now created trailer park for all these trailers which will further make the place free, " he said
Vanguard Nigeria