By Ibironke Ariyo
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is intensifying its partnership with the Petroleum Tankers Drivers (PTD) branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to combat the rising number of tanker crashes on Nigerian roads.
The FRSC Corps Marshal, Malam Shehu Mohammed, stated this when he paid a courtesy visit to the National Chairman, PTD-NUPENG, Comrade Augustine Egbon, on Wednesday in Abuja.
Mohammed expressed worry over the incessant crashes involving petroleum tankers that claimed many lives and destroyed property worth billions of Naira.
He said that the FRSC was aware that most crashes that happened involved independent tanker owners and drivers who were not affiliated to any association or union.
He stressed the need for the PTD-NUPENG and FRSC to revive the ‘Safe Load Scheme’ which he said empowered the Corps on Pre-Loading and Post-Loading Inspection.
According to him, the FRSC, because of the incessant fuel tanker crashes consuming so many lives, decided to reach out to its critical stakeholders, and this time around, was with the PTD-NUPENG.
“We already have a scheme, which is the “safety load scheme”, where we do pre-load and post-load inspection of tankers when they take fuel from the depot and the tank farms to various destinations across the country.
“So, we intend to have a forum with all stakeholders so that we strengthen and improve on what we do, especially on that safety load scheme.
“It is also to check other areas where we can do training and retraining of drivers, do more of public education and sensitisation as to a secondary factor, which is the scooping of fuel by the general public around the area,” he said.
The FRSC boss appealed to PTD-NUPENG to place more emphasis on training and retraining of its members for effective and efficient service delivery.
Mohammed believed that working together with stakeholders would assist FRSC in achieving its mandate on reducing road crashes and creating a safe motoring environment.
Responding, the National Chairman, PTD-NUPENG, Comrade Augustine Egbon, assured that the Union would continue to build the capacity of members on safe delivery of petroleum products.
“We do trainings for our men thrice in a year and FRSC are always present whenever we have these trainings.
“FRSC and PTD-NUPENG have good relationship because FRSC inspects the trucks before they load.
“We will sustain that and ensure that road crashes are reduced to the barest minimum,” he said.
The PTD-NUPENG chairman assured that the Union was ready at all times to support FRSC in bringing sanity to Nigerian roads.
Egbon, however, appealed to the government at all levels to make Nigeria roads better.
Also, National Trustee of PTD-NUPENG, Comrade Salimon Oladiti, assured that more collaboration between the two agencies would enhance their relationship and effective traffic management in the country.
Highlights of the event were presentation of plaque to the National Chairman, PTD-NUPENG by the FRSC Corps Marshal, group photographs among other activities.
