The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) inter-agency Joint Task Force (JTF) has apprehended 362 trailers conveying 5,169 passengers on different highways nationwide.

FRSC spokesman Olusegun Ogungbemide said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

”The inter-agency JTF successfully arrested, as of today, a total of 362 trailers loaded with 5,169 passengers hanging on top of goods and animals,” said Mr Ogungbemide.

”As part of the operations, the JTF dropped more than 3,530 passengers who were mandated to take alternative vehicles designed for conveying passengers,” he added.

Mr Ogungbemide explained that the joint task force, inaugurated in Kaduna on March 23, com­prised the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, state traffic management agencies, and transport unions.

According to him, the JTF took off its operation in Niger, Bauchi, Taraba, and Kaduna and later extended to some notorious corridors of Southern Nigeria.

He said the JTF was also embarking on sensitisation and advocacy campaigns.

”Irrespective of these efforts, most of these commuters still disregard the sensitisation campaigns and travel to their destinations using these trailers as means of conveyance,” the FRSC spokesman said.

Mr Ogungbemide explained that the corps had risen to the challenge of confronting bad road use behaviour on all fronts in the last couple of months.

He said this had led to a high-level partnership between the FRSC leadership, various transport unions, security agencies, and state traffic management agencies.

Mr Ogungbemide said this was to give a holistic approach to enforcing compliance against using trailers as passenger vehicles.

He quoted the corps marshal as calling on leaders at all levels to compliment the FRSC’s effort in bringing the deadly road traffic violations to a halt by sensitising their subjects further.

(NAN)