Night travels, overloading our major headache – FRSC

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) says overloading and night travels have remained some of the problems confronting the agency.
Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Dauda Biu, said this in a statement on Sunday.
He was reacting to a June 02 accident along Kano-Ringim Road Kano State in which 18 people died and 12 others were injured.
Biu, a statement by the Corps Public Education Officer (CPEO) Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) Bisi Kazeem, said the crash occured at 20:35hrs in Zakirai town, Kano-Ringim Road, and involved two commercial vehicles, a Volkswagen Sharon, overloaded with children and a Toyota bus also overloaded.
“To add to it, the Sharon engaged in dangerous and wrongful overtaking,” he added
Biu said that all hands must be on deck to ensure that overloading is reduced to the barest minimum, if not completely avoided.
The FRSC boss cautioned “motorists against dangerous overtaking, overloading and night travels across the country.”

The corps marshal also called for patience and collective vigilance on the roads to avoid unnecessary and unwarranted road accidents that could claim lives and properties.
He said the “FRSC is committed to ensuring safer road environments stating that adequate number of personnel and logistics are on the road for effective traffic management and rescue operations across the country.”
He also appealed to members of the public to contact the FRSC call centre through the toll-free line (122) in the event of a road crash and other emergencies for a prompt response.
He also said that all FRSC facilities remained open and functional to attend to members of the public.

Govs Otti, Inuwa join Soludo using Nigeria-made vehicles as official cars

Newly sworn in Abia State Governor Dr Alex Otti has become one of the few Nigerian governors using Nigeria-assembled vehicles as official cars.

At his inauguration on Monday, May 29, Otti rode in an Innoson-badged vehicle, to the admiration of many people at the event.

Like his Abia counterpart, Governor Inuwa Yahaya also unveiled (Innoson vehicle) as his official car during his inauguration at Patami Stadium in Gombe.

The two governors have thus joined Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, who had earlier made history as the first of the current state governors to have been driven to the inauguration ground in a Nigeria-assembled luxury SUV.

Although the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari in an executive order directed government officials and offices to patronise vehicles assembled in Nigeria, many have ignored the presidential directive.

In the past, many Nigerian presidents, state governors and government functionaries were fond of using vehicles from the nation’s auto factories. Peugeot Automobile of  Nigeria supplied most of the classy vehicles used by top government officials then.

Excitement, Lagos motor/autoparts expo holds June 6-9 with 100 OEMs, investors

About 100 auto firms mainly, foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers, are billed to attend this year’s edition of Lagos International Motor Fair and Autoparts Africa Expo, the organisers of the annual event BKG Exhibition Limited has said.

Managing Director of the BKG Exhibition, who doubles as chairman of the organising committee, Mr Ifeanyi Agwu, stated this at a media parley in Lagos on Tuesday.

He said the event holding from June 6 to June 9, 2023 at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island Lagos, is aimed at driving more investment into automobile spare parts and accessories manufacturing in Nigeria.

He said apart from showcasing the best of products in the industry, auto part makers from China, Europe and other foreign countries would be looking forward to meeting genuine local investors with a view to setting up manufacturing firms in Nigeria.

According to Agwu, Nigeria has all it takes to be a thriving hub of auto spare parts manufacturing not only for the West African region but also in Central Africa and Southern Africa.

This, he stressed, was based on Nigeria’s huge market and large population.

Agwu further revealed that to achieve this, this year’s edition of the event would focus on Business-to-Business interface between the exhibiting Original Equipment Manufacturers [OEMs] and dealers in auto parts from major auto markets across Nigeria and some neighbouring countries.

“We are aiming at using such platform to see to working business partnerships between them and the OEMs that will lead to setting up plants in Nigeria to manufacture parts and accessories,” he stated.

Agwu therefore advised the Federal Government to focus more on spare parts manufacturing rather than vehicle assembling.

He said, “Spare parts is the place where the real technology transfer takes place. It involves precision and proper planning more than the coupling that takes place in assembling.

“This will give rise to the establishment of more Original Equipment Manufacturers and increase employment.”