By Stephen Adeleye.
The Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) on Friday launched its ember month safety campaign in Lokoja, Kogi with advice to the motoring public to imbibe safety consciousness while driving to minimise road crashes in the yuletide.
The Corps Marshall, Dr. Oyeyemi Boboye, gave the advice at the inauguration ceremony, of the ember month Campaign/Mega Rally in Lokoja.
The campaign had the theme: “Road Safety is a Sate of Mind, Road Traffic Crash is an Absence of Mind; Stay Alert, Stay Alive”.
He urged motorists to always to be conscious of their safety while behind the wheels.
Represented by Zonal Commander Amochi Unwanga, Boboye reiterated commitment of the corps to ensuring that ember months were free from road crashes and fatalities.
He said the 2019 theme was carefully chosen to allow every one to reflect and to analyse issues of road traffic rules and regulations and enforcement within its ongoing efforts to reduce rate of fatalities of road crashes in the country.
He said the corps took cognisance of its collaborative efforts in dealing with road challenges and had worked hard to sustain the campaign to make the road safer for all users.
He, therefore, enjoined all road users to shun reckless driving and ensure their vehicles remained road worthy, urging further that they avoid over speeding in their bids to meet demands of the yuletide period.
In his remark, Gov. Yahaya Bello, warned drivers and motorists to embrace the slogan of “tyres roll on safely to exist, rather than to extinguish”.
Represented by his deputy, Chief Edward Onoja, Bello urged all stakeholders in road management to be conscious of their roles of ensuring safe highways.
He noted that 22 States made use of Kogi roads daily to Abuja which had made the state a thoroughfare with its enormous challenges.
He added that in the last three years, the government had faithfully honoured the partnership with FRSC to ensure reduction in statistics of road crashes and fatalities, promising to build on the achieved records.
He said that the government was partnering with FRSC and security agencies to ensure total safety on the road that would be free of criminal elements and dangerous drivers.
The governor decried the recent upsurge in criminal activities on Lokoja – Abuja highway, but urged FCT officials to be alive to their responsibility as most of the attacks occurred outside the border of Kogi state.
He urged the people to join hands with the government to having a crash free yuletide.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Kogi, were fully represented at the occasion.
(NAN)
