FRSC disagrees with court over ruling on fines

The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Boboye Oyeyemi, says the recent court ruling that prohibited the commission from imposing fines on offenders could mislead Nigerians.





It can be recalled that NE had reported few days ago, about the pronouncement of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos which stripped the corps of the power to impose fines on errant motorists.



The judge, Justice James Tsoho, had on September 26 ruled that Section 28(2) of the FRSC Act, 2007, which empowers the corps to fine motorists, was in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution and, as such, it could not stand.



Justice Tsoho, had described the FRSC’s imposition of N3,000 fine – as against the statutory N2,000 – on one Tope Alabi as a “legislative absurdity.”



Alabi, a lawyer, had asked for N10m from the corps as damages for impounding his car and imposing the fine on him.



However, Oyeyemi in a statement by his media assistant, Mr. Sani Abdullahi, said Tsoho’s ruling could have negative implications on members of the public.



The statement read in part, “We believe that there are enough judicial pronouncements to the fact that the FRSC has adequate legal and statutory backing to perform its functions as stated in the Federal Road Safety Commission (Establishment) Act, 2007 and the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2012.”



The statement also stated that the FRSC was constitutionally saddled with the responsibility to arrest road traffic offenders, impound vehicles and charge statutory fines for such offences.



“Those brandishing the judgment in the Tope Alabi’s case as against the plethora of other cases from the Federal and State High Courts that were in favour of FRSC which emphasized the constitutional powers of FRSC to arrest erring road traffic offenders, impound vehicles used to commit such offences and impose statutorily stipulated fines for such offences, are deliberate mischief makers bent on misleading unsuspecting members of the public for reasons best known to them,” it added.



source: nigerianeye