No fewer than 30 persons have been reportedly killed in auto accidents across Benue state which also left over 100 persons sustaining varying degree of injuries in the last three weeks.
The Zonal Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps in charge of Zone 4, Assistant Corps Marshall Yakubu Attah disclosed this yesterday at the inauguration of the north central zone chapter of the Federal Roads Committee on Surveillance and Action Against Road Abuses, FERCSARA, in Makurdi.
Attah attributed most of the mishaps that claimed innocent lives of motorists and commuters to “the abuse of roads in the state through illegal construction of speed bumps, cutting of major roads and making of bonfire and erection of illegal checkpoints on the roads.”
Earlier in his speech, while inaugurating the committee, a member of the Board of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, representing the north central zone, Hon. Samuel Gwomna disclosed that the federal government would soon set up mobile courts to try the culprits of road abuses across the country.
Gwomna said, “when established, the courts would go a long way in checking activities that lead to unwarranted road mishaps and loss of innocent lives across the country.
While urging road users to strictly abide by the rules governing the use of roads in the country, Gwomna said, “those behind the erection of speed bumps, cutting of our roads and the erection of illegal check points on roads across the country should also desist or be prepared to face the wrath of the law.”
In his speech, the National Chairman of FERCSARA, Mr. Kelvin Onuoha lamented that “the country is daily recording increasing deaths on the highways due mainly to destruction and abuses of our roads by communities where the roads are situated and road users alike.
Also speaking, the north central zone chairman of FERCSARA and zonal coordinator of FERMA, Mr. Robinson Ibe said the inauguration of the committee was timely stressing that it would help the government check the abuses and deaths recorded on major highways in the country.
He added, “this committee will henceforth regularly traverse all federal roads in the zone to ensure that our roads are no longer abused in any form and by so doing check the increasing road mishaps in the country.”