The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has arrested 22,617 motorcycle operators across the country for non use of safety helmets.
Details of the arrest indicates that in January 9, 134 motorcyclists were arrested while 13,483 arrests were made in February for flouting the directive on the use of the safety gadget.
These figures bring the total arrest since the commission began implementation of the policy on January 1,2009 to 183,558, Corps public Education Officer, Samuel Obayemi, said this in a statement recently.
Further breakdown of the arrests, according to Obayemi, indicated that Jigawa State accounted for the highest number of 21,932 violators while Osun and Niger States posted 12,963 and 11,355 non-compliant motorcycle operators respectively from January 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010.
However, Rivers State recorded the least figure of 390 arrests whole Sokoto and Abia State accounted for 989 and 1,028 respectively.
In a related development, the FRSC arrested about 1,190 erring motorcyclists in January and February 2010 in continuation of its nationwide special patrol aimed at stamping out overloading of vehicles on the nations highways.
A further breakdown of the arrest reveals that 550 drivers were arrested in January while 640 others were nabbed in February.
The figure indicated that Lagos posted the highest cumulative figure of 1,122 recalcitrant drivers followed by Delta State with 100 and 94 arrests made in Oyo State between January –February.
The least figure of 58 arrests were recorded in Kogi State while Nasarawa and Osun States accounted for 64 and 69 arrests, respectively.
Meanwhile, the FRSC has stepped up the operational strategies, as the free vehicle safety check has been re-introduced to be conducted every quarter as part of measures to inculcate into motorists effective vehicle maintenance.
