The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ministerial task team on traffic management has vowed to ensure route compliance notwithstanding the continued intimidation of its members by military and paramilitary personnel.
The team took this stance following last Sunday’s action of a Nigerian Army General who reportedly pulled his gun at a personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) who had flagged him down for driving against traffic along the Nyanya-Mararaba route.
Ikharo Attah, chairman of the task team, at a news conference in Abuja, said the work of his team would have been made easier with the cooperation from the civilian population, but lamented that armed uniform operatives have become a law unto themselves.
Attah said the task team was collaborating with the military police to assist in meting out appropriate sanctions on erring military personnel. He recalled that the FCT minister, Muhammadu Bello had recently approved a “name and shame” policy for traffic offenders notwithstanding their status.
He also regretted how some personnel of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) assaulted the divisional police officer (DPO) of Karu Division for stopping their official bus from parking wrongly on the expressway.
“We have the problem of roadside trading which we have almost successfully tackled. The other problem now which I know that the DPO of Karu and the DPO of Nyanya as well as the Kugbo and Karu component of the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) are battling is the issue of those driving against traffic. And we have agreed among us that they are largely done by uniform personnel.
“Last Sunday when we had a problem at Kugbo, we had a very rough encounter with some uniform personnel. We were there when the Corps Marshall of the FRSC arrived at the scene to monitor his men and a General in the Nigerian Army brought out a gun to threaten a road safety official and the Corps Marshall had to advise that the road safety official should consider his safety first.
“But we are pushing hard. The beauty of it is that we are getting the military police, Col. Madaki and his men who can punish their own and we know that is going to help us greatly,” he said.
