The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, has confirmed that 800 articulated vehicles were impounded in less than two weeks of the commencement of Operation Scorpion II.
The corps marshal made this disclosure during the 1st half of the year 2020 strategy session with FRSC high command corps and zonal commanding officers alongside sector commanders on Thursday in Abuja.
The exercise, which started on Monday, Aug 10, 2020, became necessary to prevent accidents, as a result of falling containers.
Oyeyemi, who said the operation Scorpion II, was executed along the Lagos, Ogun and Oyo State corridors, added that the 150 offenders were arraigned before the mobile courts.
According to him, we recorded successful operations since we started and we will continue to put surveillance on the road to ensure maximum compliance with road traffic rules.
“We have impounded 800 articulated vehicles in less than two weeks of the Operation Scorpion II and 150 offenders have been prosecuted. We have tackled the safety risk associated with unlatched containerised cargoes being conveyed on flat bed trucks through the ongoing special enforcement patrols. We have agreed jointly with the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) to have a surveillance team within the various corridors as we need to tackle it from the root and on the highway as well. You see, when containers are latched, it makes the drivers to be very careful and when they are not latched, it becomes dangerous. At least we have recorded 85 per cent success. When we can tackle the challenges on the road, it gives us the best results and that is what we have done now. We assure road users that we will sustain this as this is part of our operations and responsibility”.
Oyeyemi said that people had adopted to travel at night while ensuring that the FRSC would, however, be on the highway to arrest them.
“We will make more enforcement as we have seen that many of them do not want to travel at day time now but to start moving from the port around 8-9p.m. They will meet us on the highway. And if you observe now, we have not heard or seen any report that any of those trucks or containers has fallen. The critical issue here is that 90 per cent of the articulated vehicles are old. They are aged like over 30 years old and that is why we are experiencing frequent break down”.
The corps marshal urged the corps operators to sustain the steam of the ongoing operations, which started with the commands within Lagos-Ibadan stretch of critical corridors in Nigeria.
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