No plans to abolish patrol points in South East, FRSC clarifies

The Federal Road Safety Corps on Sunday clarified that it does not intend to abolish patrol points in Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, and Enugu states.

The announcement was made in a statement by the FRSC Public Education Officer, Olusegun Ogungbemide, to address circulating reports suggesting the corps had initiated moves to remove these patrol points.

It was reported on June 21 that the Zonal Commanding Officer of Zone 9 Headquarters in Enugu, Uche Chukwurah, announced the abolition of static patrol/patrol points in the South East states of Abia, Imo, Enugu and Ebonyi.

Chukwurah, who disclosed this during his maiden visit to Abia State Federal Road Safety Command Umuahia, further explained that instead of the static check point style of patrol in the past, the Zone has adopted the mobile patrol operations.

However, Ogungbemide explained that Chukwurah was misquoted.

“Nothing can be further from the truth as the statement was not only misleading but capable of giving wrong information to unsuspecting members of the public on the intention of the FRSC Management on the ongoing operational rejigging not targeted at the Southeastern states of the country but the nation at large.

“Consequently, any meaning read to the original statement attributed to the Zonal Commanding Officer of Zone 9 Headquarters to create the impression that the FRSC is abolishing or intends to abolish patrol in the Southeast is distorted, misleading and should be disregarded,” Ogungbemide stated.

He emphasised that the FRSC was focused on enhancing its operational strategies to improve the capacity of its personnel.

This includes providing functional operational vehicles, ambulances, and motorbikes, and retraining personnel for efficient rescue services.

The aim is to increase the mileage coverage of daily patrol activities and ensure a stronger presence across the road network.

Ogungbemide further clarified that the FRSC’s efforts were aimed at improving road safety and supporting other security agencies through reliable processing of driver and vehicle databases, with no plans to abolish patrol points in the South-East.