The corps marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Shehu Mohammed, has ordered the activation of the penalty points system to strengthen compliance with traffic regulations.

The system was designed to track and penalise drivers who committed traffic offences.

Mr Mohammed, in a statement by the corps public education officer (CPEO) on Monday in Abuja, said that the penalty points system was a proven method of enforcing traffic laws.

The FRSC corps marshal said that the system also assigned points to drivers for various traffic offences.

According to him, the system has the goal of reducing Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) and promoting safe driving practices.

“When a driver accumulates a certain number of points, he becomes liable to penalties such as warning, licence suspension or complete withdrawal of the licence,” he said.

Mr Mohammed explained that drivers who accumulated between 10-14 points, would receive a warning notification, which signified that the driver should desist from violating traffic regulations.

“When the driver goes ahead to accumulate between 15-20 points, his or her drivers licence will be suspended, signifying a temporary withdrawal of rights to drive in Nigeria.

“However, the drivers licence finally gets withdrawn when the driver accumulates 21 points, indicating that the driver’s right to drive on Nigerian roads is totally taken away or denied.

“Examples of traffic offences and penalty points in Nigeria include: driving without a valid driver’s license which accrues 10 penalty points, and N10,000 fine.

“Speed limit violation accrues five penalty points and N5,000 fine; driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs also accrues five penalty points and N5,000 fine.

“Dangerous driving accrues 10 penalty points and N50,000 fine,” he said.

Mr Mohammed said the sanctions and accrued points would form part of the record to be forwarded to countries demanding for driving history and extract of Nigerian drivers applying to drive in foreign lands.

According to him, all these are the determined efforts of the corps to engender sanity and reduce fatalities on our roads.

“Apart from promoting road safety ideals and reducing the number of RTCs in Nigeria, the system also proves to be a proactive move towards stiffer enforcement of traffic laws.

“This helps in signifying a step in the right direction in FRSC’s quest to ensure that Nigerian roads are safe for use by everyone,” he said.

(NAN)