The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) , has hinged the poor traffic management in the country on inadequate manpower in the federal government agency.
The corps said the paucity of personnel accounted for increasing carnage on Nigerian roads since its men could not meet the global deployment standard in all highways where road users drive recklessly.
The FRSC Zonal Commanding Officer in charge of Ekiti, Kogi and Kwara States, Assistant Corps Marshall Amanche Nwaka, said this during a courtesy visit to Ado Ekiti on Wednesday.
Nwaka applauded the inter-agency synergy between the FRSC and the Ekiti State Traffic Management Agency (EKSTMA) saying this has brought about the improvement in traffic management in the state.
The Zonal Commander also lauded Governor Ayodele Fayose for placing high premium on rehabilitation of roads , describing huge investment in road infrastructure as a veritable weapon to curtail accidents and deaths on the roads.
“The low manpower in FRSC is affecting our jobs. We have no enough men to deploy in the roads to control traffics and that was why we are encouraging the states to create their own traffic management agencies.
“We want to commend Ekiti for establishing EKSTMA, because it takes great political will to be able to set up such agency.
“The first thing I noticed when I entered Ekiti was that the state has good road networks, they are motorable and this I think has been helping a lot .
“I want to commend all the agencies for collaborating well. There shouldn’t be any rivalry because we are all contributing to national development”, she said.
The FRSC boss hinted that the FRSC would soon begin a proficiency training for all the commercial and drivers in the employ of the state civil service , where certificates will be issued certifying them fit for the job.
Special Assistant to the Governor on Environmental and Traffic Control in the State, Mr Afolabi Ariyo , described the FRSC as a blessing to Nigeria, saying its establishment in 1988 had reduced annual accidents from 25,792 to 9,694 in 2016.
Afolabi added that the infrastructural development being undertaken by Fayose makes it a matter of imperative for traffic managers to be alive to their responsibilities to prevent increasing accidents on the roads.
“The construction of new infrastructure calls for re-orientation of the populace to acquaint them with the traffic streams so as to avoid vehicular-vehicular conflict on one hand and vehicular-pedestrian conflict on the other with the view to reducing to the barest minimum incidences of road traffic accidents.
“It is in this area that EKSTMA and FRSC need to collaborate so that vehicular and pedestrian movements are seamless and devoid of conflicts which could result in road crashes”, he pointed out.
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