The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) will today flag off a special intervention initiative to enforce strict adherence to passengers’ manifest by commercial drivers.
The intervention codenamed ‘Operation Akaeze’ commences from today September 29th and will be implemented four days a week. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Enenu Ochepo, Superintendent Route Commissioner said in a press release.
Ochepo explained that the Special Intervention patrol would ensure that passengers travelling on inter-state journeys are mandated to authenticate their details in the Passenger’s Manifest, Noting
That the directive is based on Section 51(5) of the FRSC Act which stipulates that All passenger-carrying commercial vehicles shall, before commencing on any intercity journey, must keep and maintain a passenger manifest indicating the names of its passengers, their addresses, their point of departure and destination, their telephone numbers, name and telephone number of the next of kin.
Jonas Agwu, Zonal Commanding Officer overseeing the FCT and Niger state also noted the FRSC had observed that some passengers usually either give wrong details or refuse to fill the form while most commercial motorists do not comply with this directive.
He posited that manifest is expected to be filled before take-off at the motor parks, which contains the name, destination, address, phone number as well as the contact details of passenger’s next of kin as it is the easiest and proper identification of passengers in any case of an accident on the highway.
The officer then urged passengers to always fill the manifest before taking off from the park as Compliance with passenger manifest during and after ember months is now a must, as it will help to always identify travelers and occupants of a commercial vehicles at all times.
