THE President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, has said ignorance about traffic rules and regulation was high among motorists, noting that drivers in the country hardly go for refresher training.
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She expressed the need for heavy fines to be imposed on reckless drivers so as to reduce the level of road accidents on Nigerian roads.
Dongban-Mensem said the Kwapda’as Road Safety Demand Foundation, which she founded and named after her deceased son, had been educating Nigerians on road safety and culture.
The Appeal Court President said this at the Kwapda’as Road Safety Demand Foundation 10th Anniversary Conference and Awards in Abuja on Thursday.
The event was attended by the Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Bagudu; the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mohammed Bello; Special Assistant to the President, Dr Lilian Diage, who represented Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; judges and other dignitaries.
Narrating how the 32–year-old lawyer died in Jos, Plateau State, 10 years ago, Dongban-Mensem said that the hospital he was rushed to after he was knocked down by a hit-and-run motorist refused to admit him.
She explained that the people, who took Kwapda’as to the medical facility, returned him to the accident scene where he bled to death.
“It is a difficult thing to lose a child; the story of Kwapda’as is repeated every day. We have taken this advocacy to schools, motor parks, companies and other public places. I am an advocate of heavy fines to be imposed on anyone who drives recklessly,” she said.
The justice said many construction companies rebuffed requests by her foundation to train their drivers but added that she remained undaunted.
Speaking at the event, a former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety, Osita Chidoka, stressed that heavy fines and aggressive enforcement of traffic regulations could help in tackling road traffic crashes in the country.
He noted that over 1,000 persons died in the first quarter of this year in Nigeria, adding that many countries, including Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, France and Japan had brought down their road crashes to almost zero due to enforcement and change in road design.
The former aviation minister disclosed that the FRSC generated N1.5 bn from fines during his administration.
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