The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said that it has no plan to abolish patrol points in four South-eastern States of Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Abia.
The acting Corps Public Education Officer, Olusegun Ogungbemide, in statement issued on Sunday noted that its attention has been drawn to the press statement published in some media platforms insinuating that the corps has abolished patrol points in four Southeastern states of Eboyi, Enugu, Imo and Abia.
He said the misleading statement was attributed to the address presented by the Zonal Commanding Officer of Zone 9 Headquarters Enugu, Assistant Corps Marshal Uche Chukwurah during her visit to the Abia State Sector Command, Umuahia.
Ogungbenide said: “Even though the statement by the Zonal Commanding Officer was meant to reaffirm the stand of the National Headquarters of the FRSC on the new operational strategy that will de-emphasise static patrol which comes in the form of roadblock, it was unfortunately misconstrued to mean abolition of patrol points in the zonal command based on security threats.
“Nothing can be further from the truth as the statement was not only misleading but capable of giving wrong information to unsuspecting members of the public on the intention of the FRSC Management on the ongoing operational rejigging not targeted at the Southeastern states of the country but the nation at large.”
Ogungbenide stressed that for the avoidance of doubt, the policy of rejigging the operational strategy of the Corps as conceived by the present Management was aimed at improving the capacity of the personnel to respond promptly to distress calls through provision of functional operational vehicles, ambulances and motorbikes; retraining of personnel for efficient rescue services and increasing the mileage coverage of daily patrol activities for increased presence on parts of the road network.
He maintained: “Consequently, any meaning read to the original statement attributed to the Zonal Commanding Officer of Zone 9 Headquarters to create the impression that the FRSC is abolishing or intends to abolish patrol in the Southeast is distorted, misleading and should be disregarded.
The spokesman said what FRSC as the lead agency in road traffic management and safety administration and one of the security agencies charged with the responsibility of creating safer road environment is doing is to work harder to improve on its quality service delivery and support to other security agencies through credible processing of database on drivers and vehicles which has nothing to do with the abolition of patrol points in the Southeast as alleged.