Reps passes Bill to establish Road Safety Special Armed Squad

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed through second reading, a Bill for an Act to Amend the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Act, 2007 to make provision for establishment of Road safety Special Armed Squad.
The bill, sponsored by Hon. Abiodun Derin Adesida (APC, Ondo) and Hon. Olaide Lateef Muhammed (APC, Oyo) was unanimously passed at plenary on Thursday.
The proposed legislation also seeks to make Corps (officers ) on the rank of Deputy Corp Marshal enjoy benefits attached to that grade including Retirement grade.
It further intends to empower the Federal Road Safety Commission with the responsibility for road traffic administration and safety management, preventing and
minimising road traffic crashes on public roads, supervision of users of such public roads, regulation of traffic thereon.
The bill equally plans to empower the commission with the powers of clearing of obstruction on any part of the public roads and for educating drivers, motorist and other members of the public generally on the proper use of public roads.
Similarly, the House asked FRSC to adopt modern technology in its operations and embrace technologically-assisted enforcement such as Automatic Vehicle Local and Automated Traffic Enforcement systems; Advanced analytics and data platforms amongst others.
It also urged the Commission to evaluate the effectiveness of enforcement strategies, whether technologically-assisted methods are reducing traffic violations and improving safety.
These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Garba Ibrahim Muhammad from Kano state at plenary.
Moving the motion, Muhammad expressed concern that FRSC enforcement methods of physical
checkpoints pose potential risks to commuters, the location of checkpoints on steep inclines or declines can be dangerous, especially for motorcycles and tricycles, application of sudden brake or swerve maneuvers to avoid checkpoints can lead to accidents.