ABUJA –
The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has held an extraordinary virtual strategy meeting with FRSC Top Management team and the 12 Zonal Commanding Officers across the country, to review the general performance of the Corps in the ongoing enforcement of the social distancing directives and the national quarantine order that have been in place for more than 4 weeks now.
In a statement by Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Public Education Officer, the teleconference meeting which held on Monday focussed exclusively on reviewing the operational performance of the Corps, with a view of identifying underlying challenges encountered in the course of the ongoing lockdown enforcement in order to re-strategize on more effective, efficient and result in yielding operational tactics that could enhance the general performance of the Corps and facilitate compliance on the part of the people.
Speaking further, the spokesperson said that the Zonal Commanding Officers explained that the enforcement so far has been utterly successful, but not without challenges, as there were cases of citizens defying both the social distancing in vehicles and the national quarantine order without any justifiable reasons.
Other challenges encountered include excessive overloading of vehicles both with persons and goods, especially the transporters who convey food produce from the farm or market places to consumers, production plants, and other places where they may be needed.
They also identified excessive speed, as the majority of the drivers most often take undue advantage of the low traffic density to abuse the legal speed limit, an act which is very dangerous and could lead to avoidable crashes with attendant loss of lives and damage to properties.
The Zonal Commanding Officers applauded the Corps Marshal and Management of the Corps for the proactive measures put in place by the Corps to halt the spread of the virus, as manifest in the prompt provision of Personal Protective Equipments like the facemasks, alcohol-based sanitizers, soap, hand gloves, etc to operatives who are at the forefront of the enforcement.
The Corps Marshal while issuing the next operation order, charged them to brace up to the present realities as records have shown a consistent rise in COVID-19 cases in the country.
He warned that extra energy and commitment must be deployed to ensure that Nigerians are made to see reasons to comply with the Presidential Taskforce and NCDC directives, with particular emphasis on social distancing in the vehicle, restriction of movement where applicable and the latest directive on the ban on interstate travels and curfew.
