FRSC Raises Alarm Over Threat To Officers

The Abia State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Mr Anthony Oko, last Tuesday said officers deployed to regulate traffic in Ohafia Local Government Area  are constantly threatened.

Oko said in Umuahia that the threats were from the commercial motorcycle operators.

He, however, denied allegations by the commercial motorcycle operators, that men of the FRSC were intimidating and extorting money from them.

Oko said that there had been cases where their officers were mobbed by the motorcyclists popularly known as “okada’’ in the course of their lawful duties.

The commander said that the recklessness and impunity with which the commercial cyclists in the area used the road called for caution.

He appealed to the state government to completely ban the use of motorcycles for commercial purposes in areas where they still operate as well as provide better alternatives.

Oko said that the “okada riders had become a terror in the area, adding that the challenges posed by them had become a national issue noting that it is an aberration to use motorcycles as a means of commercial transportation in the country. There should be a better alternative,” Oko said.

However, Mr Aso Johnson, a commercial motorcyclist in the area said that the cyclists, as a group had never mobbed any officer of the FRSC.

He said that though the cyclists and officers of the FRSC were in constant friction as a result of non-usage of crash helmet and the new road safety number by some cyclists, “such has never resulted to a mob action by our union.’’

Another commercial cycle operator, Mr Awucha Njo,  said that the relationship between members of their union and the FRSC in Ohafia depended on how the cyclists kept to traffic rules.

“Those who obey traffic rules don’t have problems on the roads, but the defaulters are the ones that are in constant trouble,” Njo said.