Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, discloses that over three per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lost annually to road traffic accidents.
Boboye made the revelations during the corps’ ember month mega rally on road safety campaign at Itam Central Motor Park, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. He explained that in 2014 alone, Nigeria lost an equivalent of $10billion, to road traffic crashes.
He said that the corps headquarters’ 2015 ‘ember months’ special patrol with the theme: “driving safely into 2016,” was designed to consolidate on the successes recorded in 2014.
Boboye aptly represented by the Deputy Corps Marshal, Adei Abu, Oyeyemi said the rally was important, considering the fact that Nigeria had the largest road network in West Africa and second largest in sub-Saharan African.f
Reeling the records he explained that from 1960, to the third quarter of 2015, Nigeria has recorded 344,367 road accident-related deaths with most of the dead being within the productive age.
The Akwa Ibom rally according to him is therefore one of the means aimed at reversing the trend.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
