In an interview today Mr Olugbenga Farinloye, the Idi-roko
Unit Commander of FRSC, told the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota, Ogun.
The Idi-roko Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in
Ogun, has decried the activities of smugglers, which it described as a
major challenge confronted its operations in 2018.
Mr Olugbenga Farinloye, the
Idi-roko Unit Commander of FRSC, disclosed this in an interview with the
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota, Ogun, on Monday.
Farinloye
said that most of the smugglers used motorcycles as means of
transportation to convey rice and sometimes rammed into other
articulated vehicles from the opposite side, in the process of avoiding
FRSC officials.
”Attempt for any enforcement agencies to
try to arrest the smugglers along the Idi-roko axis had resulted to
accident that led to loss of lives and property,” he said.
The unit commander said that the smugglers
cultivated the habit of using unregistered plate number on their
vehicles which made it difficult to identify when crime was committed.
He said that the FRSC found it difficult to
address the problem alone without the other relevant agencies, because
officials of the corps were not armed.
Farinloye also noted that some of the
enforcement agencies along the Idi-roko axis could not arrest the
hoodlums due to reason best known to them.
He said that he had visited all the relevant
enforcement agencies such as Police, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS),
Department of State Services (DSS) but all proved abortive.
Farinloye called on all relevant agencies to
come together as a special patrol to form a task force to stem the
menace of smugglers.
”There is a way we can collaborate to work as a team with all relevant agencies in tackling the activities of smugglers,” he said.
He also said that FRSC had visited many places
like Churches, Mosques, market places and paramount rulers, to
sensitise them on why safety consciousness on the roads should be a
collective responsibility.