WELCOME ADDRESS PRESENTED BY CORPS MARSHAL AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF FEDERAL ROAD SAFETY CORPS, OSITA CHIDOKA DURING THE COMMISSIONING OF THE THREE (3) HEAVY DUTY TOW TRUCKS PROCURED BY THE CORPS ON TUESDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2009 AT FRSC NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, WUSE ZONE 7, ABUJA

PROTOCOL

It is with great honour and pleasure that I welcome you to this occasion today.

2.       I want to thank all the distinguished guests, especially the Deputy Senate President, Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu for honouring our invitation and accepting to personally commission these heavy duty tow trucks procured by the Corps for the execution of its mandate of ensuring obstruction-free roads.

3.       The significance of today’s ceremony should not be lost on us. After my assumption of office and careful analysis of our logistics needs, I took the message to His Excellency, the President and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, GCFR, and leadership of the National Assembly, who graciously provided us funds in the 2008 budget for the procurement of some patrol cars, motorbikes, ambulances and tow trucks.

4.       We had after meeting the requirements of the due process, procurement procedures and approval of the Federal Executive Council procured and commissioned the vehicles as provided for in the budget. That was done through the Secretary to the Federal Government, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, CFR, who on behalf of the President, Commissioned the first batch of 180 patrol vehicles and 150 motorbikes last year.

5.       This was followed by the commissioning of 22 Ambulances and 100 motorbikes by the wife of the President, Hajia (Dr) Turai Yar’Adua in August this year, culminating in the commissioning today, of these three heavy duty tow trucks.
 
6.       Due to the budgetary policy of the Federal Government against the backdrop of the global economic recession, there was no provision for vehicles in this year’s budget for the Corps.

7.       Your Excellency, permit me to use this medium to thank the President, leadership of the National Assembly and indeed, all members of the Federal Executive Council for their renewed interest in the activities of the Corps since last two years.

8.       We are conscious of the fact that our national development is intractably linked to the safety of our roads. And that reports of incessant road traffic crashes in the country do not only scare away potential tourists and investors, but the human and economic losses resulting therefrom are quite enormous and unbearable. This is worsened by the reality that the most productive and energetic segment of our population are mostly the victims.

9.       For the avoidance of doubt, this is the first time in the history of the Corps that brand new duty tow trucks of this tonnage were injected in our fleet. This action signifies the focus of the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government to place the safety of Nigerians in the priority pedestal it deserves.

10.     The commissioning today of these three heavy tow trucks is a demonstration of that efforts. Our projection is to have 12 of the heavy duty tow trucks in all our Zonal Command Headquarters and medium duty tow trucks in the Sector Commands and heavy traffic areas of the country for prompt removal of all obstructions from our roads. This will take care of incidence of broken down vehicles on the highways, as they constitute further dangers in form of traffic congestion and collision when other vehicles run in to them.

11.     These tow trucks shall be deployed along Mokwa – Jebba, Abuja – Lokoja and Lagos – Ibadan roads to take care of the perennial road congestions noticed along these roads. Over the years, it has been observed that motorists spent hours along the identified routes whenever there were road traffic crashes that led to road obstruction. It hoped that deployment of these vehicles to those areas would ameliorate the problem.

12.     It is our belief that with more government and stakeholders’ sustained support and funding, FRSC will be in a position to carry out its statutory functions of ensuring safety on our roads effectively and efficiently. I therefore appeal to the government to sustain its interest and support to the Corps in order to adequately tackle this menace on our highways.

13.     Once again, I welcome you all, our distinguished guests to this commissioning and pray for your journey mercies back to your destinations.

14.     Thank you.