The Head, Media Relations and Strategy of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Bisi Kazeem, has insisted that late James Ocholi’s driver had no driver’s license record with the commission.
Mr. Kazeem said this on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
According to him, the news making round in the social media that Taiwo Elegbede, driver of the ill-fated vehicle that claimed the lives of Ocholi and his family members, has a driver’s license is not true.
“Elegbede is not captured in our driver’s licensing data, so the license he claimed to have expired must be a fake one.
“Our license procedure includes physical presence and biometric capturing of applicants which is permanently stored in our data bank, for the purpose of verification.
“We always tell members of the public to visit our licensing centres spread across the country and desist from patronizing touts while applying for their driver’s license.
“Elegbede cannot be called a competent driver if he does not have a genuine driver’s license, which he can only acquire showing mastery of basic driving principles.”
Also, reacting to the claim that the vehicle was not originally that of the labour ministry, Mr. Kazeem said, “A good driver must perform a routine check on his vehicles before driving out, it is not an excuse to say because the vehicle was provided by another office and he should ignore a check on it.”
“In fact, the maintenance department could not claim in-culpability as a result of receiving the vehicle from another agency or department, the more reason , why proper check should be carried out as the vehicle is changing hands.”
Mr. Kazeem said the commission wished the driver speedy recovery and urged members of the public to only engage the service of genuinely licensed drivers to avert road carnages.
Mr. Ocholi, his wife and a son, died in an accident along Kaduna-Abuja Highway on Sunday, March 6, while the driver and the orderly sustained serious injuries.
Boboye Oyeyemi, corps marshal of the FRSC, had said the driver was not captured in the commission’s data during his briefing to President Muhamammadu Buhari on Wednesday.
Mr. Oyeyemi said the drivers in Federal Ministries Department and Agencies should come for adequate training on convoy driving by the commission.
(NAN)
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