The Federal Road Safety Corps has sent 80 persons to mental health facilities for various traffic offences, as traffic marshals commen...
The Federal Road Safety Corps has sent 80 persons to mental health
facilities for various traffic offences, as traffic marshals commence
pilot exercise for new road safety enforcement policy.
Bisi Kazeem, the commission’s spokesperson, told PREMIUM TIMES in a
chat on Sunday afternoon that the offenders were arrested between
Saturday and Sunday.
The new policy kicked off on July 1. The 80 persons were arrested
for 86 offences which ranged from driving without seatbelts to making
phone calls while driving, Mr. Kazeem said.
On Saturday, Boboye Oyeyemi, the Corps Marshal of the FRSC,
deployed a team of road traffic marshals to major roads around Abuja, in
a new operation codenamed ‘Cobra Squad.’
Mr. Kazeem said 19 people were arrested on the first day for 22
offences. On Sunday, 61 offenders were arrested for 64 violations, Mr.
Kazeem said.
Driving while making phone calls and driving without seatbelts were
the most prevalent infractions — at 27 and 23 instances, respectively.
Mr. Oyeyemi said probing mental stability of road traffic offenders will
help curb abuses and promote sanity on the road.
But some psychiatrists have criticised the policy as ‘reckless’ and
’embarrassing.’ Ambrose Lawani, a psychiatrist based in Benin City,
said the FRSC did not consider some crucial factors before announcing
the policy.
“They cannot implement psychiatric tests without putting key arrangements in place,” Mr.
Lawani said. For one, Mr. Lawani said, traffic offences are part of
normal social misbehaviours that require only caution through fines
rather than being seen as mental disorders.
Another major concern is that the policy “would be a serious
distraction for psychiatric doctors in the country because of the high
number of individuals that will be forced to take tests when those with
genuine mental illnesses are not even getting the treatment they
require,” Mr. Lawani said.
Similarly, he said FRSC did not outline what will happen to any offender shown to be suffering mental disorder after evaluation.
“Anyone found to be suffering mental disorder cannot be allowed to go home without proper treatment,” Mr. Lawani said. “If the person doesn’t have money, who will pick the bill?”
Dumping hundreds of drivers in mental health centres will only
worsen the centres and little budget they receive, which has been
stagnant since 2006, the psychiatrist said.
“Nigeria is in for a big embarrassment with this hasty and
poorly-researched policy that will soon somersault like others before
it,” he said.
The doctor advised the FRSC to consult psychiatrists across the
country for a possible synergy on how the policy could be properly
implemented without disrupting existing arrangements for mental health
evaluation and treatment.
But Mr. Oyeyemi said mental evaluation requirement was not unusual
in road traffic enforcement and likened it to the process of obtaining a
driving licence.
“This is one of the criteria before you obtain a licence,” he said.
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