By Ekuson Nw’Ogbunka
Abuja
Accident Prevention and Rescue Initiative (APRI) has appealed to Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State to as a matter of urgency and importance, lift the ban placed on the operations of Directorate of Road Transport Services (DRTS)/ Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) of the State.
In a resolution passed by the organization at its emergency meeting, whose copies were made available to media houses within the weekend, on the high rate of road crash incidents occuring on Kaduna State roads and Nigeria in general, the organization’s Executive Director Fidelis Nnadi appealed to the governor to passionately use his executive powers to direct the lifting of the ban placed on the operations of VIOs of the state by his predecessor, Gov, El Rufai, for over five years.
The organization made the appeal while analysing the rate of road crashes occuring on Kaduna State Roads which is believed can be attributed to the absence of professional vehicle inspection officers saddled with the responsibility of conducting vehicle inspection for the purpose of determining the road worthiness of vehicles for the safety of road users and road crash prevention on the State roads.
Lamenting the disadvantages of not having the Kaduna State professional vehicle inspection officers in conducting their constitutional responsibilities in vehicle inspection and certification of its road worthiness, Amb. Fidelis Nnadi urged the Executive Governor to consider the risk road users and vehicle occupants may be experiencing since the ban of the officers in the State was made by former Governor Nasir El-Rufai
“The organization wish to draw the attention of His Excellency that It is not in the interest of safety of road users to ban any organization contributing to road safety, as road safety is everybody’s business. It therefore behoves on the governor, to as a matter of urgency and constitutional mandate to recall the officers back to their duties to fill the gap created by their absence in this direction.
“The statistics of road crashes by the FRSC on Kaduna State roads is unbearable which Governor Uba Sani should strive to curtail by deploying all efforts that includes the vehicle inspection officers to mitigate the carnage,” Nnadi concluded.
