The federal government
has opened fresh
investigations into the frequent clashes between the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Vehicle Insp-ection Officers (VIO) across the country, presidency sou-rces have said.
A committee has already been set up by the federal government to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the frictions between the two organisations over the right to issue drivers’ licence and vehicle registration numbers, the sources said.
Although details of the committee membership was not given, its terms of refer-ence was said to include a review of all the laws establishing both FRSC and VIO and to make appropriate recommendations where the laws contradict each other.
The FRSC and VIO have severally traded accusations over interference and usurp-ation of each others, duties, especially regarding licences and vehicle registration issu-ance and other road taxes, and last week, a Bill was intr-oduced on the floor of the Senate which sought amen-dment of the FRSC Act.
The federal government set up an investigative panel sequel to complaints it rece-ived from several quarters on the road traffic control disp-utes between the FRSC and VIO, and some state governments, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), were said to have written to the presidency, citing the case of production and issuance of drivers’ licences and vehicle registration number as issues that would make or mar the organisations, unless the federal government intervened.
It was gathered that the FRSC was making spirited efforts to ensure that it had more powers than the VIOs in road traffic management, and to that effect, the FRSC had written to the secretary to the government of the federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette, who allegedly wrote asking the FCT minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, for information on the activities of the VIOs in the FCT.
Our sources said also that The presidency was poised to streamline the activities of both FRSC and VIO by expunging conflict areas in the enabling laws and delineating areas where both organisations could jointly operate.
The FRSC and VIOs in Abuja and Lagos State specifically, have been at loggerheads. Some state governments also interferred and the VIO in Abuja and Lagos had expressed intention to set up number plate production plants to which the FRSC are opposed.
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