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| Sector commander RS.5.2 Corps, Udeme Bassey Eshiet |
By Michael Odiah
Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), Delta State command, led by Sector commander RS.5.2 Corps, Udeme Bassey Eshiet has implored the help of all stakeholders to join in the fight against Road crashes.
According to the sector commander "We are doing everything necessary to reduce overloading, overloading will cause imbalance in vehicles, increase the number of casualties if there's a road crash, we are in partnership with armed agencies to work at night to reduce haulage cars (trucks) from carrying people. Regardless, we also have the challenges of not being armed."
Udeme stated this during a courtesy visit by members of Indigenous Correspondents Chapel (ICC) of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Delta state council at his office on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.
Speaking with the Journalists, the Sector commander said, "we need the media to join hands with us to help us propagate our messages, we urge you to carry our messages to the grassroots for safer roads in Delta state."
He added that "we offer much to the public beyond what they imagine. We carry out public enlightenment on the proper use of the road, we are currently embarking on the wet season driving, we hope to meet a large chunk of the people at public spaces like the church amongst others."
He further disclosed that "we are also calling on manufacturers to put safety first in car production, while we are also calling on road contractors for more engagements to add our input as concerns safety on these roads; what causes road crashes are unsafe act and unsafe conditions, that's why we carry out road audits and profer solutions to the government,".
"Let's consider the use of bicycle to reduce the use of cars and by extention reduce pollution and road crashes and also explore the efficacy of water transportation to further clamp down the use of cars."
Corp Udeme who happens to be the 20th sector commander of Delta state while underscoring his accomplishments since emergence stated that "the first thing that greeted me when I came was the confrontation with the fact that people sleep at the Niger bridge every festive period."
"I immediately did what I could to meet with the contractors of the second niger bridge, we went on a facility tour and discovered the bridge was completed , we did need assessments and saw to it that funds was what was keeping the bridge, so we raised a position paper to the president to let him know why we needed to open the bridge for the festive season, then the past minister came and accessed it and saw the need to take a stand with our position paper."
"Eventually the bridge was opened for vehicular movement on a temporary basis and closed on 15th January, 2023, again I i pushed for a permanent diversion, the permanent diversion you see today is the proactiveness of the Corps both at the state and federal level. If you pass the bridge you see that the road is beautifully done and tempting for road users to want to over speed, but we are doing our best to curb that."
He further infomed that FRSC also has number plates and drivers license of international standards, "the recent innovation is that one has to go through a Computer Based test (CBT) after 20 modules training all of international standards to increase the value of our drivers license in the country."
"We have also clamped down on the registration of unregistered bikes which has assited the government in revenue drive." He added.
