May 29: Tinubu backs FRSC night patrol, tech upgrades – Corps Marshal

The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Malam Shehu Mohammed, says President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda has given the corps a major lift in funding, technology and operational reach, including approval for nationwide night patrols.

Mohammed said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja to commemorate President Tinubu’s two years in office on May 29.

The FRSC boss said that Tinubu’s administration’s “massive support” for road safety was cutting crashes and would help Nigeria halve road-traffic deaths by 2030.

“When we keep on clamoring, preaching and propagating that road safety is a global ideal, holistic and it’s a collective responsibility, the administration came in terms of moral support and funding.

“The directives were given to us from his office that we should start looking at how we can start the night patrol.

“This is because the government also realised that most of the crashes, fatalities and serial injuries occur at night.

“So he also directed that we should be looking at how to start the night patrol and directed us to resume full night patrols,”he said.

Speaking further, Mohammed said that reported crashes fell by about 10 per cent in 2024, adding that fatalities rose because of secondary incidents such as fuel scooping at tanker crash sites.

The FRSC Corps Marshal, however applauded the 10 per cent drop in crashes, and appealed to motorists to avoid risky behaviour, especially at accident scenes.

“You see, Primary crashes often do not kill, but secondary activities around fallen tankers do. It’s only the fatality that increases. And why it increases is because of the secondary aspect of a crash.

“When the crash occurs primarily, maybe there was even no loss of life, people or other citizens come to scoop fuel on a fallen tanker, that’s when the crash occurs and that’s when the secondary aspect of the fatality used to happen,”he maintained.

Applauding the administration, Mohammed credited quicker budget releases and prompt action by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation under the leadership of Sen. George Akume.

He said “all our mails, all our memos, and all our activities used to be channeled through his office, and he doesn’t delay anything for road safety.

“He gives it a fast track, a rapid response to see that at least he’s supporting us to make Nigeria’s road safer, and to reduce the road traffic crashes by 50 per cent by the year 2030.

“So we are really grateful to this administration. We thank the administration for their massive support for road safety and approval of the night patrol generally,”he said.

Speaking further, Mohammed said the corps had upgraded offices, expanded staff training and rolled out two technology platforms in the past year.

The FRSC boss named the first, as a one-stop mobile application, which warned drivers and passengers when a vehicle exceeds prescribed speed limits — 50 km/h in towns, 30 km/h in built-up areas and 80-100 km/h on highways.

He, however, said that the app also flags black spots, dangerous bends or potholes and was continually updated as road conditions change.

He added that the improved crash-response time, made possible by the app’s geolocation feature, aligns with the administration’s ease-of-doing-business.

“You can see that even our staff have started getting some training, capacity building continuously to make sure that we increase on the productivity side of achieving our mandate.

“We also improved on technology, we brought two services. We brought the mobile app, which is a one-stop shop, and then also to reduce the gap between the Nigerian public, the modern public, and the Corps.

“We also keyed into the Renewed Hope agenda of ease of doing business, whereby even those outside, wherever you are, because of the technology aspect of it, you can relate, interact, and get the services of FRSC.

“So far, these are some of the achievements and then the second one is, we used to have an issue with the global agencies concerning the crash data coming from Nigeria.

“The second innovation, is the National Crash Information Reporting System, which unifies data from all security and emergency agencies.

“The World Bank and World Health Organisation,(WHO), previously queried the quality of Nigeria’s crash data but with the new system, duplication is eliminated and the country now speaks with one reliable database.

“We are grateful for the president’s backing and will keep pushing until our roads are safer for all Nigerians,”he said.

The FRSC Corps Marshal, however, urged continued public collaboration, stressing that road safety was a ‘collective responsibility.