The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Rivers has arrested a total of 236 traffic offenders within one week.
The state Sector Commander, Corps Commandant Salisu Galadunci disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Port Harcourt.
He explained that the Corps was prepared to enforce and enlighten the people on the culture of traffic adherence in the state.
According to him, 278 offences were recorded out of the 236 traffic offenders apprehended between June 29 and July 4.
“In the past one week, we have so far arrested a total of 236 traffic offenders and we have recorded 278 offences out of the record between June 29 and July 4, 2020.
“Enforcement in FRSC is always the last resort, basically, I believe in educating the public using the various media platforms and even going to garages to talk to the public.
“But the few persons that are bent on disobeying set rules are the ones that we bring to our office on daily basis,” he said.
Galadunci said that the Corps has also stepped up its operations by taking public education to the various loading areas in the state to keep the public abreast of the covid-19 restrictions.
“As the ban on inter-state movement was lifted since last week, we quickly keyed in by sending our men to the various loading bays in the state.
“We are doing this to ensure that the covid 19 compliance level on the use of face mask and physical distancing rule were being upheld by the various transport companies.
“We’ve also been talking to the various fleet operators on the covid 19 compliance, right from the entry points of these loading parks.
“In addition, we’ve also been checking to ensure that there are provisions for water, soaps and hand sanitizers for use at the garages,” he added.
On the new number plate center set to begin in the state, Galadinci said its benefits cannot be overemphasized especially to the state government and stakeholders in the sector.
“When we were operating under the old number plate registration system, the various state revenue centers simply registered vehicles without uploading the information to the data base of the National Vehicle Information System (NVIS).
“The FRSC in its wisdom created the NVIS which has since creation served as a complete one-stop data base platform for every state of the federation including the FCT.
“We established and equipped office centers at the various state headquarters of state revenue offices.
“What the center does is to imput into the NVIS the records of all registration carried out on vehicles, motorcycle and tricycles in the various states.
“The measure is one of the steps to promote accountability and also check possible fund leakages,” Galadunci said.