A human rights group, the Centre for Human and Socio-economic Rights (CHSR), has condemned a bill before the National Assembly seeking to allow the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials access to the use of firearms on duty.
The group said at a press conference addressed by its President, Comrade Alex Omotehinse today, that rather than seeking to grant access to FRSC officials to bear arms, there should be concerted effort at streamlining the use of arms and ammunition by security agencies towards demilitarising the society.
Omotehinse noted that Nigeria faces the challenge of abuse of the use of arms and ammunition in the hands of security agencies in addition to the growing proliferation of arms with illegitimate access by non-state actors.
“The worsening threats constituted to national security by the number of agencies using arms is, to say the least, worrisome.
“In addition to mopping illegal arms in the possession of non-state actors, the government must restrict the granting of blanket approval to agencies to procure and use arms considering the predilection for abuses by personnel.
“We therefore do not see the justification for granting the FRSC the approval to carry arms. We do not see how collective national interest would be advanced by turning the FRSC into an arm of security agencies in Nigeria,” he said.
CHSR then called all on the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and members of the National Assembly to reconsider the bill, saying that “the proposal as needless and wrongheaded.”
The group demanded that the FRSC should design training and re-training programs twice a year for the general road users as well as company drivers, and make regular training mandatory.-
“Road safety officials should concern themselves with their primary responsibility of taken care of accident victims on our roads which was why the agency was created rather than lobbying to carry firearms.-
“Rather than engaging in the controversy of granting FRSC the permission to carry arms, we urge the national assembly to pay urgent attention to the deplorable state of roads across the country in other to make roads motorable and safer,” Omotehinse said.
While saying that it is no longer news that the national economy has been grossly hampered by the poor state of roads across the country, the group called on the leadership of the FRSC to “deploy a reasonable means of curbing the act of corruption among its officials.”
It emphasised that legalising the use of firearms for the FRSC, which it said is supposed to operate in a civilised environment, will amount to further militarising the polity.
The group said that what Nigerians need at the moment is not an increase in the number of armed agencies, but reorientation of security agencies for civilized operation.
It added that Nigerians look up to the National Assembly to help and support a genuine quest for good governance that it said would allow Nigerians to live peacefully with one another.
“Therefore, we suggest that existing security agencies should be empowered and supported with relevant laws and oversight that would make them to function in civilised and responsible manner.
“We wish to assert that the primary aims and duties of the FRSC revolve around advocacies on road safety, operational activities to curb abuses by motorists and taking care of victims of road accidents.
“We hope the plan to grant the FRSC permission to carry arms is not in furtherance of the frenzy for revenue generation by the federal government.
“Nigerian road users have suffered tremendously in the hands of various government agencies including the FRSC.
“We view the proposal to grant the FRSC access to the use of arms as curious, unfounded and dangerous.
“We are concerned that the rights, comfort and safety of road users will further be endangered by the bill being debated if eventually passed into law.
“We are not unaware of how officials of FRSC routinely subject motorists to delay and harassment the private on the pretext of checking vehicle particulars,” the group said.
Omotehinse stated that allowing FRSC officials carry firearms would lead to further increase in abuses against motorists as well as possible escalation of incidents of extra judicial killing.
