FRSC Operatives Charged To Eschew Compromise, Comply With Presidential Directives
…On Partial Easing Of Lockdown With Vigour
By Cyber Era Correspondent
The Corps Marshal of road safety regulator in Nigeria, the Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, has charged operatives of the Corps to eschew any form of compromise and carry out with all sense of responsibility and vigour the Presidential directives on partial easing of lockdown effective from Monday, May 4, 2020.
According to information from the Corps Public Education Officer, Corps Commander Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Marshal gave the charge to the operatives in order to keep them on high alert regarding the imperatives of implementing to satisfaction the Presidential directives with particular emphasis on the restriction on interstate travels, physical distancing amongst vehicle occupants , compulsory use of protective face masks and provision of temperature check devices , sanitizers and hand washing points in motor parks and terminals.
The Corps Marshal ordered Commanding Officers to ensure that only vehicles conveying goods such as agro and petroleum products, medical supplies, relief and construction materials as well as essential services as directed by Mr. President were allowed to travel across states and warned that on no account should taxis conveying more than 3 passengers (driver and 2 persons) be allowed passage on any route.
In the same vein, buses must comply with the directives of conveying passengers without exceeding 50 per cent of mandatory capacity (maximum of only 2 passengers on a row), while tricycles should carry only two passengers at a time, in line with the recommendations of the Presidential Task Force(PTF) on physical distancing amongst commuters.
Oyeyemi’s directive was coming on the heels as transport owners had been adequately communicated on maintaining environmental hygiene and provide temperature checks and hand watching/sanitising points at the parks/terminal. As such, the FRSC boss said, Commanding Officers should, with immediate effect, engage the Transport Unions on the need to adhere to the prescribed number of passengers they were to carry.
The Corps Marshal also ordered the personnel to ensure that defaulters were brought to book through the instrumentalities of already existing mobile court operations constituted for the lockdown enforcement.
While speaking on the alarming rise of the pandemic in Nigeria, he called on the entire populace to intensify efforts on personal hygiene and desist from violating the social distancing order, as the partial ease of the lockdown did not in any way suggest that the scourge was over. According to him, the partial lockdown period basically called for more vigilance and stringent compliance even more than ever before, so as to avoid making mockery of the progress already recorded so far by the PTF in the fight against the global health challenge.
