The Inter-Agency Joint Task Force of the Federal Road Safety Corps has seized 35 trailers carrying a total of 982 passengers along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway and in Bauchi-Maiduguri area last week.

The Corps Public Education Officer, Assistant Corps Marshal Jonas Agwu, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

The statement revealed that the operation was a strategy to combat trailer-related accidents and the practice of transporting people in trailers.

The statement partly read, “In what seems to be an effective strategy in the fight against trailer crashes and conveyance of human beings by these same category of vehicles, the Inter-Agency Joint Task Force recently constituted by the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dauda Ali Biu, to operate along critical corridors have apprehended 35 trailers carrying 982 passengers.

“According to the reports of the special intervention patrol operations forwarded to the national headquarters, a total of 19 trailers carrying 810 people were apprehended on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.

“While the JTF team covering Bauchi-Maiduguri general operation area of the Corps also arrested 16 trailers conveying 172 passengers on that route.

“The arrests were perfected within the first one week beginning from March 23 to 30 of its operations on the identified routes.

“At the points of arrests, the Inter-Agency Joint Task Force ensured that all passengers onboard the trailers were dropped, cautioned against the deadly act, and asked to join passenger vehicles designed for conveying people,” it said.

The statement further stated that the FRSC is engaging transport unions and articulated vehicle owners to address the issue.

“While the special operations are going on, the corps marshal also directed sector commanders of the states where the act is more prominent, to sustain ongoing engagement with the leadership of road transport unions as well as owners of articulated vehicles.

“This is to ensure that drivers who engage in such traffic violations are cautioned,” it read.

It was reported in March that the FRSC inaugurated a Joint Task Force to arrest and prosecute trailer drivers conveying humans.

The Joint Task Force comprised of the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, State Traffic Management Agencies, and operatives of the Corps.

It also also reported in January how a trailer driver reportedly fell off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Bridge.

It was gathered that the trailer had crashed into the bridge, leaving the front part of the trailer hanging off the edge of the bridge. (The PUNCH)

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