No fewer than 70 officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, have been arrested for alleged extortion during patrol and in the corps facilities, the Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi has said.
Mr Oyeyemi disclosed this on Thursday during a strategic session with unit commanders at the FRSC Academy, Udi in Enugu State.
The corps marshal said that extortion was becoming a cankerworm which seemed to be eating into the corps systematically and must be stopped by all means.
He said that it was sad that in spite of the good welfare packages the government had made available to the FRSC officers, they had the effrontery to allegedly indulge in the vice.
He said that those involved must be prosecuted and if found wanting with the weighty evidences against them, they would be sacked from the corps to serve as deterrent to others.
“The management of the FRSC is not the type you would bring returns to. We are not noted for this.
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“To this end, the corps went into synergy with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Department of State Security, DSS, to tackle the monster.
“So far, a total of 70 arrests have been made in that joint operations and those involved would soon be arraigned in court,” he said.
Mr Oyeyemi said that they needed to wage war against any form of corruption in the corps, as the FRSC was made up of people with integrity.
“We return millions of naira and dollars and other foreign currencies to members of the public involved in road crashes every week because this is the public trust we have built.
“We must make sure that the corps is not ridiculed. The members of the public should stop offering bribes to our officers and report those who seek for bribe,” he said.
The corps marshal said that the integrity and probity of the corps had been heightened by the subscription of the FRSC to the Akin Fadeyi Foundation.
“The foundation is a private organisation which launched the App, ‘Flagit’, a platform to report corrupt practices by public institutions.
“It is, therefore, fights on all fronts as there is no backing out except conformity is achieved in the desired manner which also is in national interest,” Mr Oyeyemi said.
NAN
