Reps committee denies approving firearms for FRSC personnel

The House of Representatives Committee on FRSC has denied approving that members of the Federal Road Safety Corps should carry arms.

Chairman of the committee, Mayowa Akinfolarin, said this at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, adding that it only expressed concern over the safety of members of the organisation.

Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, had appeared before the committee to defend the organisation’s 2021 proposed budget, where he lamented the threats to officers’ lives during road patrols.

Akinfolarin said on Monday, “We want to start by debunking some insinuations made across social media. We were with the Federal Road Safety Corps for budget defence and in that meeting, it was clearly stated that as responsive representatives, we owe it a duty to protect lives and properties on our roads. The corps marshal made some reports concerning the harassment, molestations, killings of his corps officers and we responded as a committee; a committee that is very responsive and sensitive to the plight of Nigerians.

“We made it clear that we owe it a duty to ensure safety on our roads. The road safety people and road users are all Nigerians and it is our responsibility – it is an issue of two sides of a coin – that the personnel of the road safety must be protected. And we made it clear in that meeting that safety on our roads is a collective responsibility, including all of you here seated.

“We made reference to an existing law, the Road Safety Establishment Act of 2007, and Section 19 made it very clear that those on essential duties, those exposed risks should be protected by way of giving arms to them where possible. We said a committee should be set up.”

He also stated, “We are not saying road safety should carry arm or not; what we are saying is (that) if you have a law, what should be done is to call for amendment. Once you have that amendment, there will be public hearing. At the hearing, the people will be able to make their contributions where necessary. We said as a committee, we need to form a body that will liaise with this commission, the SGF, supervisory bodies, so that we can come together, brainstorm, and see what can be done, so that unnecessarily, we don’t lose our men to hoodlums.”