By Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi
A Bauchi based group, Advocacy for Integrity and Rule of Law Initiative (AIRLIN) has decried the incessant loss of lives on Bauchi state roads, attributing consumption of hard drugs by drivers to avoidable deaths.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the fourth quarter of 2023, 657 people were involved in various road traffic crashes while 407 casualties were recorded.
The Coordinator of AIRLIN, Mahmoud Mohammed Abubakar, while speaking at a one-day workshop for drivers on Sunday, said that as group, it was identified that human errors were major contributing factors to road crashes in the state and “that is why we decided to gather the drivers to train them by officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
“We noticed that taking hard drugs, lack of knowledge and underage driving are part of the causes that are sending our people to early graves, and that is what prompted us to train them.”
Meanwhile, the representative FRSC Bauchi Sector Commander, Nasir Musa Mohammed, the Provost of Corps, said that the drivers were trained on safe driving and speed caution.
“Most of the road crashes are caused by over speeding and taking of illicit drugs by drivers.
“We urge anyone who wants to drive to seek proper knowledge of driving for us to have a safer road and reduce the number of casualties,” he said.
One of the drivers, Abubakar Usman applauded the organisers for the life saving workshop. “To be sincere, there are so many safety precautions I have never known in the past that are good for me, I just learnt them here. I am glad to be part of this training, so many of our colleagues have been killed by some of these minor mistakes that we don’t take seriously,” he said.
The training was attended by the Rector, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi, official drivers association, Police and others.