The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has announced that its Joint Task Force, (JTF) seized about 35 trailers carrying a total of 982 passengers along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway and in the Bauchi-Maiduguri area, News About Nigeria reports.
The Corps Public Education Officer, Assistant Corps Marshal Jonas Agwu, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
He noted that the operation was a strategy to combat trailer-related accidents and the practice of transporting people in trailers, adding that the trailers were seized last week.
Agwu also stated that the arrests were perfected within the first week, beginning from March 23 to 30, of its operations on the identified routes.
“In what seems to be an effective strategy in the fight against trailer crashes and conveyance of human beings by this same category of vehicles, the Inter-Agency Joint Task Force recently constituted by the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dauda Ali Biu, to operate along critical corridors have apprehended 35 trailers carrying 982 passengers.
“According to the reports of the special intervention patrol operations forwarded to the national headquarters, a total of 19 trailers carrying 810 people were apprehended on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.
“While the JTF team covering the Bauchi-Maiduguri general operation area of the Corps also arrested 16 trailers conveying 172 passengers on that route,” the statement reads in part.
He, however, noted that the Inter-Agency Joint Task Force at the points of arrest ensured that all passengers onboard the trailers were dropped, cautioned against the deadly act, and were asked to join passenger vehicles designed for conveying people.
The corps marshal further directed sector commanders of the states where the act is more prominent to sustain ongoing engagement with the leadership of road transport unions as well as owners of articulated vehicles.
