About 130 Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have been arrested in a series of joint sting operations involving the management of the Service, the officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and officials of the Department of State Security (DSS) from 2019 to date.
Consequently, the ICPC is currently pressing charges against the crops of the corrupt highways officlals whom the Commission’s officials, who led the various monitoring teams, serve as principal witnesses in an effort that aims at checking petty and grand corruption in the country.
It would be recalled that the FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi had in 2019 approached the ICPC Chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, for collaboration to curb the unwholesome practices by Road Safety officials on the highways, particularly the extortion of motorists.
The collaborative exercise which aims at arresting FRSC officials who extort motorists on the highways also involves bringing an end to unwholesome practices by FRSC, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) and Motor Vehicle Authority Agency (MVAA) at Driver’s License Centres.
In the operation tagged Tranquility Test that was conducted over five phases to rid the Nigerian Highways of corrupt road safety officials, 130 culprits were arrested in different states across the country.
Data from the ICPC shows that 46 FRSC officers were arrested in phase one while N40,830 was recovered and, 26 FRSC officers were arrested in Phase 2 with N51,260 recovered.
During phase four of the Tranquility Test, a total sum of N1,063,920 was recovered, the highest amount in an operation that led to the arrest of 25 road safety officers while 33 personnel were arrested under Phase 5 and N45,870 recovered.
A breakdown of the figures showed that under phase one that was carried out in August 2019, four officials were arrested in Kaduna State; Five were arrested and the sum of N3,500 recovered same period in Rivers State, while six officials were arrested and N500 recovered in Ogun State.
Further breakdown of the arrest made and the amount recovered under phase one of the exercise showed that 11 FRSC officials were arrested in Kogi State; Five FRSC officials were arrested and the sum of N4,300 recovered on the same date in Bauchi State; while 15 FRSC officials were arrested and some of N32,530 recovered in Abia State.
The second phase was conducted on 4th October 2019 and five officials were arrested and the sum of N1,150 recovered in Ondo State; eight officials arrested and about N10,530 recovered in Zamfara State; nine officials were arrested and N11,300 recovered in Imo State; while four officials were arrested and N28,280 recovered in Yobe State;
For the fourth phase of the operation, 25 officials, VIO and Motor MVAA were arrested and the sum of N1,063,920 recovered from the operation conducted on 20th August 2020, in Coker/Aguda, University of Lagos, Ikeja, Iponri, Bariga, Ojo, Town Planning Ilupeju, Eti-Osa, Agege and Oshodi Driver’s License Centres.
In the same vein, five FRSC officials were arrested in Onitsha under the Fifth phase of the operation while Awka had 11 arrested officials; Calabar eight; Enugu five and Jos had four FRSC officials arrested.
The suspects were granted administrative bail and further investigation activities are on-going. Others are undergoing administrative disciplinary procedures while some are being prosecuted in Federal High Courts across the Country.
The FRSC had in August 2020 constituted the Federal Road Safety Corps Disciplinary Panel to investigate corps personnel who were involved in infractions or played key roles in disruption of the FRSC/ICPC/DSS Joint Monitoring exercise (Tranquility IV) conducted at the Driver’s Licence Centres.
The ICPC said it would sustain the operation to rid the Nigerian highways of government officials who extort money from road-users.
Under the leadership of Bolaji Owasanoye, the ICPC has embraced a paradigm shift, in which it consciously promotes strategic partnership with relevant stakeholders to strengthen public enlightenment efforts in discouraging corruption and corrupt tendencies.
The Tranquility test is one of such in which the commission works with key government agencies in line with its National Ethics and Integrity Policy that is designed to prevent corruption while enforcing ethical codes.
Owasanoye captures the dynamics of the war against corruption when he said, “Enforcement is important but where corruption is systemic, you need a combination of factors because when it is systemic, everything is affected.
“We need a combination of enforcement and prevention because if you don’t prevent it, corruption weakens the capacity of the state.
A lot of prevention methods have been introduced under President Muhammadu Buhari, using technology trying to stop the money from going away.”
Owasanoye said the campaign against corruption this time will engage every stratum of the society. “We will ensure citizen-by-in.
If the leadership continues to make an effort to stop corruption and the people disagree, you will be swimming up the creek without a paddle because it will be very challenging for you; you need the people’s consent and support to succeed,” he argued.
The ICPC boss said his agency is not re-inventing the wheel but leveraging existing platforms, laws and institutions.
“There are things that the Government wants to do for the people but are made impossible because of the conduct of the people, so we feel that the people have a great role to play and the first is that it is already in the Constitution that is governing us.
“Let’s bring out all those values of dignity, patriotism, cooperation and hard work of integrity and then we need to design a communication strategy around it because it is one to have a good policy and another thing to communicate it.
“We are also mindful of traditional institutions, religious platforms, ethnic, congregation and congregation that people trust and believe in; they need to be part of it,” he explained.
Over the years, corruption has been a clog in the wheel of progress in Nigeria and has incessantly frustrated the realization of noble national goals, despite the enormous natural and human resources in Nigeria.
It has been described as the misuse of entrusted power or dishonest use of one’s office or position for personal gain. It is a cancerous global phenomenon, which has continued to cripple the developmental efforts of Nigeria.
Corruption in Nigeria manifests in the form of misappropriation, kickbacks, over-invoicing, bribery, embezzlement, tribalism, nepotism, money laundering, and outright looting of the treasuring, and so on.
It is an obvious fact that in Nigeria, some of the elected and appointed public office holders and top bureaucrats use their position of authority to actively engage in corrupt practices.
According to a Transparency International Report, corruption drains Nigeria of about 20 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product.
Statistics from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, also list the Nigeria Police, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) as among the seven worst receivers of bribe in Nigeria in which 85 per cent of their victims have been discouraged from seeking redress or reporting exploitation.
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