296 motorists fail FRSC test out of 305 arrested

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on Thursday said it had arrested 305 motorists for 345 life-threatening traffic offences since the launch of its Operation Cobra on July 1.

The Corps Marshal of the agency, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, who disclosed this in Abuja, said nine of the arrested offenders passed the psychological test administered on them.

This, according to him, means that their actions were as a result of willful violation of regulations.

Oyeyemi spoke at a one-day national workshop organised by the FRSC for driving school operators.

He reiterated the commitment of the FRSC to enforce the new policy of subjecting life-threatening traffic law offenders to psychological test.

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According to him, the actions of such violators were deviation from the true nature of Nigerians as a “cultured, disciplined and enterprising people who have faith in life and those of others’’.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Operation Cobra is a new road safety enforcement policy of the FRSC designed to subject violators of certain traffic offences to mental stability evaluation.

The offences are use of phone while driving, route violation, traffic light violation, dangerous driving and overloading.

Oyeyemi said the policy was in response to rising incidence of the identified offences, adding that investigating the mental stability of violators would help to check the trend.

Following media reports, which described the exercise as psychiatric test, some stakeholders, especially psychiatrists, denounced the policy as “reckless and embarrassing’’.

The Corps Marshal reiterated that the FRSC was not embarking on psychiatric test neither did it intend to do in the near future.

He said the agency could not shy away from its responsibility of checking the lawlessness of road users, adding that the exercise had reached a point of no return.

The Corps, according to him, is working with the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nigeria Psychological Association to ensure fairness in the dispensation of justice during the exercise.