FRSC commends NPA over truck transit parks

Abiola Seun

The Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) yesterday commended the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for setting up a Truck Transit Park (TTP) at the Lilypond Container Terminal, Ijora.

Recall that NPA had last week inaugurated two transit truck parks at Lillypond and Tin Can Island Second Gate.

The authority expressed belief that the truck parks would enhance effective port operations and improved service delivery across the board and ensuring that all trucks were not allowed to park on the bridges.

The Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem while speaking on the sideline of the ongoing African Public Relations Association (ARPA) holding in Kigali, Rwanda, said the transit park of the NPA has played a major role in decongesting the port access road.

Kazeem further stated that with the TTP, only trucks needed at the seaports are on the road thereby extending the live span of the roads and allowing free flow of traffic for port users.

He said, “NPA had played a major role by creating the truck transit parks. The problems have always been trucks with no job on the road their but the new system now is that truck not needed at the port are off the roads.”

He continued, “When it’s their turn (truck drivers) they come to the port and that system remove the pressure from the road and it means that at a time only fewer trucks and tankers are plying the road so the congestion of trucks on the port access roads will he very minimal and no concentration of trucks to cause congestion or to weaken the road by staying days on a particular spot which is not suitable for road users, vehicles and the roads. So, the role played by NPA is well commended and welcome by FRSC,” he said.

Kazeem however stresses that though construction is ongoing on the section of the Oshodi -Apapa express road, the corp is maintaining presence to ensure free flow of traffic.

He said, “What we are doing is to ensure that we mobilise to site to ensure that people plying the roads do not encounter any hiccup or a traffic gridlock. We ensure traffic is moving while work is going on.
“Mostly, FRSC as a lead agency for traffic management is their to work with Lagos State Traffic Maintenance Agency (LASTMA), the Nigerian Navy to ensure that traffic control is maintained and not hindered always.”

The Corp commander also disclosed that the corp maintained high level of integrity with zero tolerance for corruption and any officers caught would be dismissed from the corp.
He said, “well our officers and men are aware of zero tolerance for corruption in FRSC and we don’t have to be involved in bribery because they know if they are caught, no two ways about it because a federal disciplinary committee will be set up and when found guilty it is summary dismissal .

“We still do surveillance on our own, we don’t leave the monitoring to the ad hoc committee because we have a role to make sure that our men do not take part in any corrupt tendencies as we do it on normal job. We have monitoring and surveillance unit in the corp and they know for sure that if found guilty of bribery is summary dismissal.”