The Enugu State Government has assured the people of continuous patnership with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), rolling out measures targeted at reducing road crashes and easing traffic flow among motorists in the state.
The state governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, made this known when he received in audience the newly posted Enugu State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Sokunbi Adeyemi, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Enugu, yesterday.
He expressed interest in everything the FRSC was doing to ensure safety on the roads, saying the state government would forge closer partnership with the corps to reduce road accidents in the state.
According to the governor, doing that successfully needed distruptive innovation, saying, “One of the key drivers of innovation is technology because technology enables us to disrupt the status quo.”
He pointed out that road transport is another sector that needed technology disruption. “If you look at our highways where you have your primary assignment, you will notice that we can actually get drivers, and road users to control their speed by deploying the relevant surveillance cameras that would help in doing that,” he said.
The governor disclosed that security surveillance cameras were currently being installed in different parts of the state, adding that they had the capacity for number plates recognition. He noted that the state government was also in the process of procuring vehicles where the surveillance cameras would be installed as well.
“Those cameras can only work with data. If you have not uploaded data, you cannot recognise any vehicle. When we have accurate data, they will be able to know licensed plate numbers and those licenced plate numbers uploaded in the API of the cameras so that if they are able to identify people whose licences had expired, it picks it apart from securing a safe Enugu,” Gov. Mbah said.
He announced that the state government would establish additional licensing centres in the state and that partnership with the FRSC would also enhance revenue generation.
The governor noted that they would set up testing locations where vehicles would be tested on road worthiness and certificates issued to vehicles which passed the test .
Highlighting additional proposed measures to the reducing road crashes in the state, Governor Mbah said that the state government would set up emergency response in eight locations to easily and quickly respond to emergencies.
The governor added that emergency response centres would work with the Road Safety and have vehicles attached.
He assured that the state government would continue to partner with the Federal Road Safety Corps to strengthen their existing relationship.
Earlier, the Sector Commander, Adeyemi Sokunbi, had told the governor that they came to intimate him of the command’s formation in Enugu.
“We have five operational commands in the state: one in Oji River, Obollo-Afor, Nsukka, Ninth Mile, Enugu and one in Emene ”
He said that they also have two of their best institutions – FRSC Academy and the Federal Road Safety Staff College, Udi in the state. The Sector Commander appreciated the state government for all it had done for the corps.
“Ours is to ensure that we have smooth passage within the state when it comes to road safety management. Road Safety management is a shared responsibility, as we need the buying in of the state government in most of the things we do. We cannot do it alone. We need to partner the state government, the media, corporate organisations and individuals to achieve our target, as our corporate strategic goal this year is to ensure that we reduce fatality and injury by 5 percent”, he said.
“Unfortunately, when I came in, the only road on my mind was Ugwu Onyeama as crash occurs there every week, and I have read the vision of your administration.
“Without safe transportation the mission may not be fulfilled. We need to ensure safe passage of people in the state. From one of your missions, I saw distruptive innovation, and it sets my mind to work. I have seen the reforms you have put in place. You are charting a new course. So, the FRSC is ready and want to partner the state, using our strategic goals. The first corporate strategic goal is to reduce crash, which is what we are doing today,” Sokunbi said.
The Sector Commander stressed the need to keep accurate data, saying, “We need to also man data within the state, We have what is called the National Vehicle Identification Scheme. It is a portal that houses records of number plates registered in Nigeria. This portal makes us recover stolen vehicles on daily basis.”
He said that they had only two places where they upload records and would want additional one to help in uploading records into the data, to help in security architecture. The sector Commander said that they also had three licensing centres in Enugu State, and would want it increased to help in increasing the internally-generated revenue of the state.
He added that the FRSC would like to train drivers, and make them useful to help in reducing crashes on the roads.
