Take bribe and be sacked, FRSC warns personnel

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has vowed to dismiss any of its personnel found extorting motorists.

Bisi Kazeem, corps public education officer, made this known in an interview with reporters in Abuja on Wednesday.

Kazeem was reacting to the recent arrest of 37 FRSC operatives by a joint inter-agency team comprising the corps, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Department of State Services (DSS).

They were arrested for alleged extortion of motorists on the highways.

The arrest was carried out following a complaint from the FRSC management that incidents of extortion were rife in six states; Kaduna, Bauchi, Abia, Rivers, Kogi and Ogun.

Kazeem, however, said the magnitude of the penalty would depend on the gravity or weight of the evidence and exhibit against personnel involved in the act.

According to him, this necessitated the collaboration with the ICPC and DSS.

“We abhor corruptive tendencies. There are internal mechanisms, the corps marshal monitoring unit and surveillance and intelligence unit,” Kazeem said.

“There is also zonal commanding officers unit of surveillance and monitoring, sector commanders unit, all aimed at checking excesses of marshals.

“The corps marshal felt that reports concerning the issue of extortion is getting alarming and didn’t want to stop at internal mechanism. They deployed technology and made the arrest.”

He added that the exercise would be sustained in order to rid the corps of “bad eggs”.