Tough times await motorists in Nigeria! The economic stranglehold apart, the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr Boboye Oyeyemi, has announced that the commission would from next week, commence impounding of vehicles with expired tyres across the country.
Oyeyemi made this known at a capacity development workshop for Zonal and Sector Heads of Operations of the commission in Enugu on Thursday.
According to him, “We have a major problem in our hands. Our management team will be in the field next week to enforce the ban on usage of expired tyres on our roads.
I will personally lead a team that will impound vehicles with expired tyres and secure other vehicles to convey passengers in affected vehicles to their destinations”.
He insisted that the usage of expired tyres and driving on top speed were among the most significant challenges in traffic management in the country currently.
Oyeyemi said the rising rate of road crashes is alarming; more than 90 percent of such incidents, between Feb. 9 and April 7, were as a result of tyre burst.
He added that the commission would also embark on sensitization of motorists on the dangers of using expired tyres, saying that the step was part of the efforts to minimise road crashes.
He attributed that the use of old tyres had accounted for many fatal auto crashes, he said, “Tyres are like drugs and last for four years. Some cars move on tyres produced in 2008”.
The corps marshal said that FRSC had recorded significant success in checking crashes involving articulated vehicles, and was out to replicate same success on vehicles with expired tyres.
He said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had shown interest in securing Nigerian roads by releasing funds to the commission for its operation.
“We must appreciate the president because for the past 28 years, we have never received 100 per cent capital allocation.
For the first time we got that this year; 90 per cent of the allocation is for procurement of vehicles and these vehicles will be commissioned by the president on Monday, May 16.
“More than N1.8 billion was invested into vehicle procurement and this is the highest number of procurement of vehicles we have ever done in the history of the commission. You must go all out to educate. We must save all those lives; those crashes must be brought down,” Oyeyemi added.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
