From Agaju Madugba, Katsina
The Secretary to the Katsina State Government (SSG), Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa, on Tuesday took the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to task, accusing the Corps of abandoning the aims and objectives of its founders.
He alleged that officials of the FRSC often turn a blind eye to road safety violations by motorists, especially public transport vehicle drivers.
‘When the FRSC was established several years ago, the people had respect for its officials because they carried out their duties diligently and without fear or favour,’ Inuwa told the Katsina State FRSC Sector Commander, Aliyu Tanimu, who paid him a courtesy visit on Tuesday evening.
According to the SSG, ‘it is sad that over the years, things have degenerated and the FRSC no longer cares about over-loading where people are packed liked sardines even in cargo vehicles.
‘In some other cases, you see passengers sharing seats with the driver and some vehicles which are no longer road worthy continue to ply the roads.
‘The situation right now is that people have the impression that the only concern of the FRSC is the seat belt and in most cases, the FRSC officials only operate within the cities
‘When drivers approach an FRSC check point, they put on their seat belts and they go and we don’t know whether the FRSC laws do not permit them to operate outside the towns or to operate beyond 6 pm.
‘Honestly, you find a lot of shortcoming in the way and manner the FRSC officials carry out their activities.
‘It is only in Nigeria you find the J5 vehicle conveying passengers whereas it was designed to move only goods from factories to short distance locations. What kind of people are we?
‘A number of motorists no longer have respect for the FRSC because they pass them with overloaded vehicles and vehicles that are not road worthy and nothing happens.
‘I understand that the FRSC has an issue of inadequate manpower but we have so many unemployed university graduates without jobs.
‘I also think that the National Assembly should review the laws establishing the FRSC to see whether they can use a percentage of resources it generates through fines to fund aspects of its operations.’
Earlier, the FRSC boss told the SSG that the agency recently clamped down on rickety vehicles that constituted a source of menace on the roads throughout the country.
Tanimu said that that the FRSC operations in Katsina were being hampered as a result of shortage of patrol vehicles.