Corps Marshal and Chief Executive Officer,of the Federal Road Safety Commission FRSC, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi has disclosed that three per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product was lost annually to road crashes.
He made this statement recently during the corps mega rally on road safety campaign at Itam Central Park.
According to Oyeyemi, “In 2014 alone, Nigeria lost N1.7tn, an equivalent of $10bn, to road traffic crashes. This is simply huge and unacceptable for a country where poverty incidence is still high.
Between 1960, at independence, and the third quarter of 2015, Nigeria has recorded 344,367 road accident-related deaths with most of the dead being within the productive age. The Akwa Ibom rally is therefore one of the means aimed at reversing the trend,” he said.
Oyeyemi added that the efforts of the corps in 2014 resulted in the reduction by 42 per cent in road traffic crashes nationwide, which means a reduction from a total of 760 road crashes in 2013 to 439 in 2014.
The Corps Marshall said the corps headquarters 2015 ‘Ember months’ special patrol with the theme: driving safely into 2016, was designed to consolidate on the success recorded in 2014.