Innocent Etuk, the Cross River State sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has disclosed that collaboration with DSS and other security agencies has so far led to the arrest of 932 traffic offenders in Cross River State in the last six months.
Giving the breakdown, Etuk explained that 548 motorists were arrested for overloading, while 384 were arrested for attempting to bribe their personnel.
According to the FRSC boss, this has made the state the third in terms of the commands that had the highest number of bookings of people who attempted to corrupt the marshals, saying such became a big boost for the command.
He said this followed his resolve upon resumption that it would no longer be the usual business where indolence and compromise of personnel were condoned.
He spoke during an interview with journalists on a fact-finding visit to his state office in Calabar over the weekend
He also disclosed that they have four operational mobile courts, where 157 traffic offenders were arraigned, 153 convicted and four discharged.
During this third quarter, there were 33 crashes, which mostly happened during night travel, amounting to 23.6%. “Out if this, 30 were injured and unfortunately six died. Most of these Infractions were due to human errors, he said.
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Etuk said their operational activities scaled up following the launch of ‘Operation Zero’, which started on 15 December, and will end on the 15th of January, 2027, leading to a proactive response to traffic Infractions in the state.
“From July to date, we have over 384 cases of drivers attempting to corrupt our men.
“Then we also have issues of overloading. Between the third quarter and this last quarter, we have even arrested motorists.
“Overloading has been a major part of the major challenge. Often, drivers, especially people coming in from the Northern Cross River axis down to the south, especially Calabar. You see them with a lot of foodstuffs.
“We do the arrest during joint operations with some of the sister agencies. Alongside DSS, we have discouraged Night travels. Th issue of overloading has also reduced. I think that is a big achievement.”
We do a lot of sensitisation during these times to dissuade motorists from traffic Infractions to save their own and passengers’ lives.
“This is based on the operational strategies that we have here, such as The Early Morning Cry, Crash Squad, Good Morning Calabar and other mass media programmes, aimed at enlightening motorists and the public to be conversant with traffic signs, rules and the need to obey them.
He advised the passengers and pedestrians to also take caution for their lives by sometimes cautioning drivers, not allowing drivers to go alone.
“It’s a collective responsibility, and I really want to appreciate our sister agency as we work as a family. They have been so wonderful.
