”FRSC TO SANCTION DRIVERS FOR OVERLOADING”=Boboye

The meeting was convened to review its activities from January and evaluate the outcome of an earlier meeting in Abuja.

He said that overloading had continued to be a major challenge for the corps, which he noted was causing more danger to road users.

“This meeting is for us to review our activities and chart the way forward for road safety operations in the country especially in the areas of the speed limiting device, tyres and overloading.

“Nigerians are beginning to pay attention to their tyres and checking the date of manufacture due to our awareness campaign.

“ The major one now has to do with excessive overloading which is affecting the quality and condition of the roads and resulting to fatal crashes.

“Overloading is excessive and when crashes occur it becomes more fatal because of the way people are packed.

“So, I want to become a terror on the road to all those recalcitrant drivers on overloading and we are not going to stop on this,’’ he said.

Oyeyemi expressed worry over the rate of crashes on major highways across the country due to overloading adding that the Corps would stop at nothing to clamp down on drivers found culpable.

He said the Corps would wage war against non-compliant drivers and urged the officers to be committed to the fight to ensure that the crashes were reduced.

Oyeyemi commended Nigerians on their level of responsiveness on the tyre awareness adding that Nigerians had a great attitude towards education and advocacy and called for more commitment to enhance road safety.

“The Corps has expanded its operation by opening more command formations and deployed some of the newly acquired vehicles there to ensure that the critical corridors were covered.

“We have about 23 corridors in the country and we have partitioned them to effectively cover our highways.

“The World Bank has furnished and equipped five corridors and we are receiving support from government too.

“This shows the government’s level of commitment toward an enduring road safety management in Nigeria,’’ he said.

He said the aim of the meeting was to also deliberate on the implementation of the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) management policy which the Federal Executive Council recently endorsed.

He added that the development of the strategy document was one of the six new measures that FRSC had adopted to effectively stem the frequency of road crashes in Nigeria.

“It now behoves the FRSC to ensure that Nigerians derive maximum benefit from the policy.

“I urge you all to continue to discharge your responsibility as professionals to ensure that road safety is enhanced in the country,’’ he said.