By Mohammed Aminu in Sokoto
The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Wednesday said not less than 180 road crashes were recorded in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States from
January 2018 till date.
The Zonal Commanding Officer of FRSC in charge of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, Mr. Ayobami Omiyale, stated this during a chat with journalists in Sokoto.
He attributed the road crashes to over loading of vehicles, mostly by commercial drivers in the zone.
This he however blamed on greed on the part of the commercial drivers to
make more money at the expense of their lives and the passengers.
Commenting on the 2018 mid-year comparative analysis as against last year, Omiyale stated that the enforcement on overloading recorded a 9.9 per cent increase this year against 2017, within the period under review.
According to him, there was a downward record in road traffic crash by 1.6 per cent, injured victims also reduced by 34.6 percent and deaths 43.5 per cent between January and June this year, compared to last year.
“In 2017, 8,720 offenders were booked for 9,443 offences, while 7,793
offenders were booked for 8,553 offences this year. A total number of
331 and 97 unclaimed permanent drivers licence for 2017 and 2018
respectively are lying fallow with the zonal command.
“The total number of permanent drivers licence received in the first half of this year from the national headquarters stood at 2,337 against 1,390 received last year, whereas, total number of permanent drivers licence collected stood at 1,092 and 2,590 for 2017 and this year,” he said.
He added that there was also increase in road traffic crash, death and number of injured victims recorded during this year’s eid-el-fitr festival.