Fifty-one per cent of road accident deaths across Nigeria in 2021 was recorded in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kaduna and Niger states.
This was discovered in an analysis of data on auto crashes released for quarters 1, 2, 3 and 4 of 2021 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This means 35 states recorded 49 per cent, while two states and the FCT recorded 51 per cent.
According to the data, there were 6,205 auto crash-related deaths in Nigeria throughout 2021.
In the report, FCT recorded 2,016 auto crash deaths while Kaduna had 677 and Niger state 454 deaths.
Out of 6,205 deaths recorded across the 36 states and capital, the auto crashes in the FCT, Kaduna and Niger states is a total of 3,147, which represents 51 per cent of the overall deaths recorded in Nigeria in 2021.
The two states and the FCT recorded the highest number of auto crash-related deaths in 2021, followed by Ogun, Bauchi, Oyo, Kano, Kwara, Osun and Kogi.
Ogun state recorded 430 deaths, Bauchi 396, Oyo 339, Kano 250, Kwara 246, Osun 240 and Kogi 229.
The data also showed that in 2021, there were a total of 8,324 ‘serious accidents’, 3,218 ‘fatal crashes’ and 1,485 ‘minor accidents’ in the country.
In reverse, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Taraba states recorded the least number of road accidents in 2021.
The NBS data showed that Akwa Ibom state recorded 33 accidents in 2021, followed by Bayelsa with 35 accidents and Taraba state, which had 36 auto crash accidents.
Like Taraba, Borno state recorded 36 accident cases, Ekiti 48, Rivers 56, Benue 61, Abia 68, Imo 69 and Cross River 70.
For three years, the number of deaths from road crashes has continued to increase.
In 2019, 5,483 persons died from road crashes, while 5,574 died in 2020 and 6205 in 2021.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is the government agency in charge of preventing road traffic crashes in Nigeria.
At the start of 2021, the FRSC, in its Strategi Goals for the year, said it would ‘minimize the Risk of Death in Road Traffic’.
The agency aimed at reducing road traffic crashes by 15 per cent and fatality by 20 per cent, but rather than reducing, road crashes in Nigeria increased.
The spokesperson for the FRSC, Bisi Kazeem, was contacted for this report, but he has not responded to questions as of the time of filing this report.
In 2021, the FRSC had identified overspeeding by drivers as the major cause of road accidents in Nigeria.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94