The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on Monday commenced an operation on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to ensure that trucks, trailers and tanker drivers complied with traffic rules.

The operation, tagged, Operation Scorpion, started at different strategic points on the expressway, including the Ojota toll gate, Mowe and Ogere areas.

Assistant Corps Marshall, Nseobong Akpabio, who spoke at the FRSC Zone 2 Command Headquarters in Ojota, said the operation would hold as sensitisation exercises between Monday, July 27 and Friday July 31, and continued thereafter as special patrols.

Present were truck drivers, NNPC Petroleum tanker drivers, NNPC marketers, and other stakeholders.

Akpabio said, “The attitude of articulated truck drivers on Nigerian roads necessitated the need for a special operation by the corps on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

“The driving habit of these drivers on our road has been a thing of concern. It is important to start this campaign from the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway corridor because Lagos is a hub for these trucks.

“The objective of Operation Scorpion is to optimally deploy the human and material resources available to the corps to ensure compliance to traffic rules by these drivers.”

He said the patrol would focus on unlatched containers, lane indiscipline, rickety vehicles, overloading, and driving licences.

“It is not ideal for a driver to drive in the middle of the speed lane. There are three lanes ─ the right hand lane is meant for overtaking only; the last one on the right is the service lane. When you overtake, you move out and continue. The left lane is for speeding vehicles,” he added.

Akpabio also warned drivers against giving out money to individuals to have their driving licences made.

He said, “It will only result in a fake driving licence. Centers will be established at the fuel depots in Lagos, Suleija, Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt. You can go to the centres to get your licences. The cost of the licence is N6,350 only. We are aware some of you pay N50,000. It is wrong.”

The Chairman of the National Association of Maritime Truck Owners, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, promised that the drivers would comply with traffic rules. He urges the government to repair bad roads.

He said, “However, inasmuch as we are willing to work with the FRSC to ensure safety, I am using this medium to appeal to various agencies that are in charge of the road.

The deplorable conditions of the road are some of the major reasons why we see containers falling here and there, so let the agencies in charge of the road maintenance be up and doing. There are too many bad portions on the road.”

 

Source: Punchng.com

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