The Centre for Human and Socio-economic Rights (CHSR) led by their president, Comrade Alex Omotehinse, has raised alarm over plans by the National Assembly to make laws empowering Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to carry firearms against motorists on the highwayss in Nigeria.
Thus, they have called on the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and members of the National Assembly not to approve the use of firearms for the FRSC, which has scaled second reading in the House because the proposal is needless and wrongheaded.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the group stated this in Lagos State during a press conference and posited that legalizing the use of firearms for the FRSC, which is supposed to operate in a civilized environment, will amount to further militarizing the polity.
The group stated:
“We are compelled to address the press on the bill before the National Assembly seeking to allow the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) access to the use of firearms on duty”.
“Nigeria faces the challenge of abuse of the use of arms and ammunition in the hands of security agencies in addition to the growing proliferation of arms with illegitimate access by non-state actors.”
“The worsening threats constituted to national security by the number of agencies using arms is, to say the least, worrisome. Rather than seeking to grant access to FRSC officials to bear arms, we expect concerted effort at streamlining the use of arms and ammunition by security agencies towards demilitarizing the society.”
“The government must restrict the granting of blanket approval to agencies to procure and use arms because of the abuses by personnel. We therefore, do not see the justification for granting the FRSC the approval to carry arms. We do not see how collective national interest would be advanced by turning the FRSC into an arm of security agencies in Nigeria.”
“What Nigerians need at the moment is not an increase in the number of armed agencies but reorientation of security agencies for civilized operation. Nigerians look up to the National Assembly to help and support a genuine quest for good governance that would allow Nigerians to live peacefully with one another. Therefore, we suggest that existing security agencies should be empowered and supported with relevant laws and oversight that would make them to function in civilised and responsible manner.”
The wish to assert that the primary aims and duties of the FRSC revolve around advocacies on road safety, operational activities to curb abuses by motorists and taking care of victims of road accidents.”
“We hope the plan to grant the FRSC permission to carry arms is not in furtherance of the frenzy for revenue generation by the federal government. Nigerian road users have suffered tremendously in the hands of various government agencies including the FRSC. We view the proposal to grant the FRSC access to the use of arms as curious, unfounded and dangerous. We are concerned that the rights, comfort and safety of road users will further be endangered by the bill being debated if eventually passed into law. We are not unaware of how officials of FRSC routinely subject motorists to delay and harassment the private on the pretext of checking vehicle particulars. Allowing FRSC officials carry firearms would lead to further increase in abuses against motorists as well as possible escalation of incidents of extra judicial killings.”
Demands:
“The FRSC should design training and re-training programmes twice a year for the general road users as well as company drivers, and make regular training mandatory.
“Road safety officials should concern themselves with their primary responsibility of taking care of accident victims on our roads, which was why the agency was created rather than lobbying to carry firearms.”
“Rather than engaging in the controversy of granting FRSC the permission to carry arms, we urge the National Assembly to pay urgent attention to the deplorable state of roads across the country in other to make roads motorable and safer.”
“It is no longer news that the national economy has been grossly hampered by the poor state of roads across the country. We also call on the leadership of the FRSC to deploy a reasonable means of curbing the act of corruption among its officials.”
