The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) inter-agency Joint Task Force has said it apprehended 362 trailers conveying 5,169 passengers on different highways across the country.
The FRSC spokesman, Olusegun Ogungbemide, disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
According to a report, the inauguration of the inter-agency Joint Task Force was held on March 23, 2024, in Kaduna State.
Ogungbemide explained that the joint task force comprised of the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, State Traffic Management Agencies and transport unions.
”The inter-agency JTF successfully arrested as of today, a total of 362 trailers loaded with 5,169 passengers hanging on top of goods and animals.
”As part of the operations, the JTF dropped more than 3,530 passengers who were mandated to take alternative vehicles designed for conveying passengers.
”This is aside from the aggressive sensitisation and advocacy campaigns that are going on across the board.
”Irrespective of these efforts, most of these commuters still disregard the sensitisation campaigns and travel to their destinations using these trailers as a means of conveyance.”
He explained that the corps had risen to the challenge of confronting bad road use behaviour on all fronts in the last couple of months.
He said this had led to a high-level partnership between the FRSC, various transport unions, security agencies and state traffic management agencies.
This, he said, was to give a holistic approach to enforcing compliance against the use of trailers as passenger vehicles.
He quoted the Corps Marshal as calling on leaders at all levels to complement the FRSC’s effort to halt the deadly road traffic violations by sensitising their subjects further.
