Emmanuel urges FRSC to ensure roads safety

Akpan Umoh, Uyo

The Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel has asked the newly inaugurated Technical Working Group of the State Road Safety Advisory Council to ensure that the roads were safe and secure for all motorists.

Emmanuel, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Mr Moses Ekpo, said this during the inauguration of the state road safety advisory council in Uyo on Friday.

According to him, the technical working group is a step towards reducing the alarming statistics of road accidents in the state and country.

The 25-member road safety advisory council has Mr Moses Ekpo, deputy governor as the chairman and Mr Matthew Olonisaye, Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, (FRSC) as the secretary.

The governor urged them to be very strategic in the current efforts to sanitise the sector, stressing that they should be patriotic and committed to the task of ensuring new dawn in the sector. 

Emmanuel said his concern about the safety of lives of citizens on roads in the state informed the necessity for the inauguration of the body to justify his administration’s huge investment in road construction and infrastructure development.

He said that members of the advisory council were drawn from organisations and agencies involved in the safety of lives and property.

“The committee is diversified with relevant responsibilities reflecting their various backgrounds and services, hence the need for them to do an appraisal of each scenario and create templates necessary to make the road safe for motorists and pedestrians in order to achieve the objective of the Federal Policy on Road Safety and Management,” Emmanuel said.

Earlier, the FRSC Sector Commander, Mr Matthew Olonisaye, said the existence of the advisory council was to help develop and deploy strategies needed to achieve the road safety vision, which is to ensure that crash incidence was minimised.

Olonisaye added that the advisory council would help design, and deploy enforcement training and awareness campaigns for effective road usage, and increase compliance with vehicle and other machinery standards.

According to him, the council would also ensure prompt effective emergency response and care by providing additional medical equipment as well as emergency rescue ambulances.

“The Corps diagnosis of road safety situation in Nigeria has exposed numerous disturbing issues leading to road carnage and loss of lives and property which prompted the development of the first National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) 2016- 2020 in Nigeria and subsequently, 2021-2030,” he said.

He expressed optimism that the effort of the council would be instrumental in addressing prevailing challenges faced with road safety management.

The sector commander commended the governor for his visionary leadership in implementing policies that guarantee the safety and security of lives and property in the state.