Appeal Court Judgement:
FRSC and the Wailers
By Abdul Jelil Adebayo
Ignorance is not an excuse, it is always advisable to always put on a thinking cap before discussing and taking a conclusive stand on government agencies.
The court ruled that FRSC can’t seize document or driver’s license without intending to change the motorist to competent court.
Those who are not happy with the transformation in the agency are already jubilating, knowing too well that they don’t normally have correct vehicle documentation.
One of the naysayers went to the ridiculous point of challenging President Bola Tinubu to take concrete measures to restore professionalism, discipline, transparency and accountability ” because of an infraction of a single officer out of thousands others in the Corps.
Many use English language without knowing the implications of such statement. Hear this: the group described the FRSC as “cesspool of corruption and inefficiency.” without proof.
Not done yet the group said it is “To restore the ailing agency back to the paths of effectiveness and efficiency in the discharge of its statutory mandates”
It went further to alleged without proof of the abuses by most operatives of the Corps.
The incident in question has been on for over five years since the period of lockdown of COVID era.
The new helmsman, Shehu Mohammed is less than two years in office and has transformed the agency into global recognition.
Under the new leadership, the
Corps has conducted series of special intervention patrol operations targeted at mitigating incidences of road traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities on Nigerian roads.
These interventions include but not limited to the following;
Special Joint Task Force against mix loading of goods, persons and animals by trailers and trucks
Special patrol against overloading of vehicles
Special enforcement against carrying of petroleum products in passenger vehicles
Special operation against tanker crashes
Special enforcement to clampdown on fake number plates
In addition to that, through tactical operations, the Corps Operatives arrested 538,398 number of traffic offenders for committing a total of 587,607 traffic Offences.
FRSC carried out series of rescue and emergency management services to save lives of victims of road traffic crashes and other emergencies on the roads.
Some of these live saving interventions are as recorded below;
The Corps also conducted rescue operations for 7,872 road traffic crashes that occurred between January and November, 2024 across the country.
During the rescue, 4,378 victims were killed while 25,127 were rescued with injuries while 27,597 were rescued without injuries from the crashes that involved a total of 57,102 people.
On the STRATEGIC INITIATIVES TO ALLAY ROAD TRAFFIC CRASHES IN NIGERIA, the Corps Developed an Application called FRSC App. This App is a one-stop shop for all FRSC products and services.
The Application is expected to boost data collation, provide critical information, enables timely decision making and swift action towards emergency rescue services.
Apart from assessing all services and products of the Corps at ease, the App has the capacity to grant easy access to listen to the National Traffic Radio 107.1 FM for real time traffic update, national drivers license portal, number plates verifications, detect potholes, alert drivers on speed violation, as well as remind drivers and vehicle owners on the expiration date of their tyres.
Another innovation of the Corps within the period is the launch of National Road Traffic Crash Information System NACRIS.
The Corps had realized that a well collated and analysed data drives decision making and guides policy formulation and implementation.
As such, came up with a portal where road traffic crash data could be harmonized for responsive actions and decisions.
The portal complements the Corps’ efforts to capture road traffic crash information in a single swoop.
Part of the relevance of this web application is its capacity to provide platform that will enable the Corps ascertain the economic, health, social, environmental as well as social burden of road crashes on our nation.
Other areas of interest are the revamp of National Drivers License (NDL) production which had earlier encountered technical glitches that affected the smooth production of the NDL.
Within the last 11 months, over 529, 880 licenses have been produced and dispatched to various states.
They comprise of 2, 543 Commercial Drivers Licenses, 56 Diplomatic Drivers Licenses, 42, 019 Graduated Drivers Licenses, 6, 684 Motorcycle Drivers License, 433, 722 Private Drivers Licenses, and 21, 976 Senior Drivers Licenses.
This milestone has quelled the rising level of grievances and agitation from applicants who were affected by the system glitch.
The Corps within this period under leadership of the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, recovered a total of 72 stolen vehicles in the category of 4 Toyota Highlander, 1 Toyota Lexus, 21 Toyota Corolla, 17 Toyota Camry, 6 Toyota Sienna, 6 Lexus 350, 3 Lexus ES350, 1 Toyota Hilux, 1 Toyota RAV4, 1 Toyota Celica, 1 Toyota Venza, 1Suzuki Bus, 1 Honda Pilot, 1 Honda Ace, 2 Honda Accord, 1 Daihatsu, 1 M/Benz Car, 1 Man Truck, 1 Pontiac Vibe and 2 Qlink Motorcycle were recovered at the point of registration through the National Vehicle Identification Scheme Portal.
In order to ACHIEVING ROBUST VEHICLE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT, the agency has produced a total of 740,073 number plates for all categories of vehicles from of that number 361,246 have been registered and uploaded into the database.
The state with the highest number of plates produced is Lagos with a total of 201, 539, out of which 95, 393 were successfully registered; followed by FCT with about 117, 277 with a total of 70,255 uploaded into the National Vehicle Identification Scheme portal.
While Zamfara had the least number plates produced with a total of 1, 672.
In the same vein, a total of 2, 396 number plates were produced for Federal Ministries/ Agencies and Parastatals as against 899 produced for MDAs in the states.
From January to December, 2024, the Corps recorded a total of 32 attacks on its operatives with 19 injured, 1 kidnapped, 4 knocked down on patrol, 3 mob attacks, 1 arm attack, 1 assault, 2 harassment by other security agencies and 1 killed.
Within the period under consideration, the Federal road Safety Corps played very important role in intelligence gathering and sharing, particularly during the ‘EndBadGovernance’ protest.
Part of the most salient measures taken to ensure that the Corps played effective role in maintaining peace and order include but not limited to the following;
Setting up situation monitoring room, using the FRSC Surveillance and Monitoring unit at the National headquarters;
Adequate deployment of personnel to identified locations of protest nationwide;
Deployment of intelligent operatives for intelligence gathering on the moves and strategies of the protesters;
Collaboration with Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies in a joint patrol and monitoring.
Also close monitoring of vehicles used by the protesters so as to generate the owners information from the National Vehicle Identification Scheme portal for investigation in case of any compromise or breach of peace.
Use of FRSC social media handles to propagate peaceful existence amongst road users.
Rescue and emergency services carried out for injured victims
With these and many more, do one still has the guts to say FRSC is not performing? Even cynics will agree that since the coming of Shehu Mohammed as the new sheriff, FRSC is now on a new digital performance. Kudos to him and his management team for overhauling the agency.
*Abdul wrote in from Abuja
