The federal government says it has  strategised  to further reduce the occurrences of accidents on the roads across the country.

The transport minIster, Saidu Alkali, said this when he received a committee to address critical road safety in the country on Thursday in Abuja.

The committee is made up of relevant stakeholders to develop mandatory training and certification programmes for trailer and tanker drivers.

Mr Alkali said realising the aim would improve safety and security to enhance the nation’s integrity. He promised that the ministry would promptly finance the committee`s projects.

Jide Owatunmise,  who spoke on behalf of the committee, commended the minister for setting up the committee to tackle road safety challenges, particularly in the haulage sector. He explained that  the setting up of the committee was  a  directive from the National Assembly.

According to him, the committee swung into action and met severally to draft and fine-tune the plans of action and the report was submitted to the minister waiting for approval and funding for implementation .

Mr Owatunmise added that the driver retraining project had become more urgent and important now than the time the NASS gave the directive. He said the implementation of the project would drastically reduce and eventually eliminate the crashes which had led to the loss of many lives and valuable properties..

“We believe that the success of the retraining and recertification of the drivers will further boost the Performance Management Score of the minister and the ministry.

“We are here to humbly plead with you to use your good office to source funds for the implementation of the drivers re-training and recertification programme as directed by NASS,“ he said.

(NAN)