EHIME ALEX, Lagos
The Federal Road Safety Corps said it has taken a review of the general performance of its personnel in the ongoing enforcement of social distancing directives and national quarantine order that the Federal Government has set in place for more than four weeks now as means to curtail the coronavirus pandemic.
This was the focus of an extraordinary virtual strategy meeting the Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi held with FRSC Top Management team and the 12 Zonal Commanding Officers across the country on Monday.
According to a statement by Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Public Education Officer, the teleconference meeting had focussed exclusively on reviewing the operational performance of the Corps with a view to identifying underlying challenges encountered in the course of enforcing the ongoing lockdown order.
It was also used to re-strategise on more effective, efficient and result yielding operational tactics that could enhance the general performance of the Corps and facilitate compliance on the part of the people, Kazeem stated.
Highlighting the challenges face, Kazeem 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”.
Kazeem said further that the Zonal Commanding Officers also identified excessive speed, as 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.
He said, “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 fore front of the enforcement.
“The Corps Marshal while issuing the next operation order, charged them to brace up to the present realities as records has 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 Task force and NCDC directives, with particular emphasis on social distancing in the vehicle , restriction of movement where applicable and the latest directive on ban on interstate travels and curfew.”
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