The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, has urged Nigerians to be vigilant against the menace of road traffic accidents in the country.
Oyeyemi who disclosed in a statement by the Corps Public Education Officer, Mr Bisi Kazeem on Tuesday in Abuja added that joint effort remained the panacea for dealing with the menace.
He commended stakeholders for supporting the Corps in creating safety consciousness among road users and making road safety a collective responsibility.
He said that this remained the best guarantee to safeguarding public safety and creating safer road environment in the country.
Oyeyemi called for more efforts in 2020 to consolidate on the gains of the campaigns in the outgoing year in order to restore sanity on the nation’s roads.
He reiterated that 2020 is important in the ongoing global campaign for road safety.
He said it is the year for evaluation of road safety strategies set under the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety: 2011-2020.
“Nigeria was one of the member nations of the UN to activate the global road safety campaign when it was first launched in 2010.
“Since then, the nation has remained active in its campaigns through increased investment in road safety management and all the pillars of the campaign, which must be sustained for us to gain favourable rating in the measurement of our success story.
“I, therefore, urged all relevant stakeholders and members of the public not to relent their efforts in the coming year, for Nigeria to stand out among the comity of nations that participated actively in the campaign,” he added.
The Corps Marshal reassured road users of their safety and convenience during the New Year celebration, saying that its personnel would remain in their posts throughout the period.
He, however, enjoined them not to treat issues of road safety with levity, stressing that accidents on the road do not just happen but caused and could be averted through adherence to traffic rules and regulations.
He added that all the FRSC rescue facilities, as well as media platforms including the call centre, would remain open and at alert to serve members of the public during the celebration and beyond.
“For the avoidance of doubt, members of the public should not hesitate to report road traffic crashes, obstruction or other emergencies to the FRSC Toll-Free line: 122 and tune into the National Traffic Radio on 107.1FM Abuja with the studio numbers: 09067000015 and 08052998090 respectively,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the FRSC special end of year operation, code-named “Operation Zero Tolerance for Road Crashes”, was launched in September to counter traffic crashes, congestion, injury and deaths that characterize the Yuletide.
