The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Cross River, says no fewer than 54 persons lost their lives from 106 road traffic crashes recorded in the state in 2022.
Sector Commander of FRSC in the state, Mr Abdullahi Hassan, said this on Thursday in an interview in Calabar.
Hassan said that 158 vehicles were involved in the crashes with 258 persons sustained injuries varying degrees of injury.
He attributed most of the crashes to speeding and loss of control by drivers.
He told NAN that in the period under review, the Command apprehended 14,345 drivers for various offences.
He added that 8,376 offenders were booked for various traffic offences and brought to the command for appropriate sanctions.
He listed the non-use of seat belts, speeding, overloading, wrongful overtaking, and use of mobile phones while driving among the offences.
The Sector Commander said that the offenders were educated by officials of the corps on the need to obey traffic rules and proper use of the road.
“In the period under review, we held 332 rallies in motor parks, public places and government offices to sensitise motorists on the proper use of the road when driving.
“We are always at the top of our activities in educating motorists on the need for proper road usage.
“When we arrest any offender, we educate and enlighten him/her on the proper use of the road and the essence to know the traffic rules and regulations,” he added.
He advised motorists in the state to have a change of attitude towards road traffic regulations and offences, adding that it was one of the ways of keeping the roads safe from crashes.
In another development, the Independent Electoral Commission has highlighted that a total of 307,394 potential voters were yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in Cross River, INEC’s spokesperson in the state, Mrs Tonia Nwobi, said in Calabar on Thursday.
Iwobi also told newsmen that refusal to collect the cards could lead to voter apathy at the 2023 general elections.
She explained that 97,381 cards were produced for voters in Cross River in 2019, but only 8,045 PVCs were collected.
She added that of the 233,481 potential voters who registered for PVCs in Cross River in 2021/2022, only 68,073 persons turned up to collect the cards.
Of the 70,474 voters who transferred their voting points to Cross River, only 17, 824 persons collected their new cards leaving 52,650 cards uncollected.
Iwobi appealed to political parties and to civil society organisations to join hands with INEC to sensitise the electorate about the need to collect the cards.
She expressed regret that in spite of the fact that INEC took the cards to local governments and wards for ease of collection, their owners remained adamant.
“Our challenge is that people are not coming out enough in spite of the sensitisation through the media and through other stakeholders.
“They want INEC to decentralise the PVC collection centres to polling units’ level.
“INEC is also faced with the problem of failure to comply with the PVC collection procedures at the collection centres,’’ she lamented.
General elections begin with the presidential vote on Feb. 25, to be followed by the National Assembly, governorship and state assemblies elections on March 11.
