The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, says the implementation and enforcement of the Speed Limit Device will kick-off on October 1.
Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal of the FRSC, made this known during a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, adding that the directive was from the presidency.
“The final directive from the presidency is clear; the enforcement date for the implementation of the speed limiting device is on Oct. 1 and we have had series of stakeholders meeting.
“The essence of today’s meeting is to finally convey the directive of the federal government to the stakeholders that with effect from Oct. 1, the implementation and enforcement would commence,” he said.
He explained that motorists who fail to comply with the new policy will have their cars impounded, adding that the initiative will help reduce the rate of car crashes in the country.
“We already have the portal that we will use to monitor this, we don’t need to pursue any vehicle, we will just stop you like we verify licence.
“On the tablet we will check whether your vehicle has been installed with the device, if it has not, we will impound the vehicle and we make sure that you do the right thing.
“We are not talking about fines now ,it’s to save lives so we will impound the vehicle then the owner of the vehicle will be made to install the device before the journey continues,’’ he said.
The corp marshal said that the implementation and enforcement of the device witnessed four postponements from its initial launching date of June 1, 2015, before its final approval by the presidency.
He explained that the FRSC was only concerned about commercial vehicles installing the speed limit device for now, adding that with time the enforcement would extend to private vehicles so as to cut down crashes on the road.
Oyeyemi said that the speed limiter device was available in the market and that the FRSC had a list of the companies trading in the device on its website and urged vehicle owners to visit the site so as to purchase genuine ones.
He however urged the Standard Organsiation of Nigeria to ensure that importers complied with the standard for the device.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, who was present at the meeting commended the FRSC for the initiative and thanked the National Assembly and the President for endorsing it.
Lawal said the project would help in saving the lives of Nigerians by cutting down speed which was a major killer on the nation’s highways.
Representatives from the National Assembly, the SGF’s office and the Department of State Security, DSS, were present at the meeting, as well as members of transport associations in Nigeria who also pledged to support the initiative.