The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) says it will commence full implementation of the penalty point system on traffic offenders from June 1.
Speaking on Wednesday at a summit on information technology at the national headquarters, Abuja, Boboye Oyeyemi, FRSC’s corps marshal, said the penalty points are allotted to traffic offences accumulated in the driver’s record.
Oyeyemi said offenders who violate traffic regulations for a stipulated number of times will be sent back to driving schools for retraining, while others will be subjected to compulsory community services according to the number of offences committed.
According to the corps marshal, the violation of traffic laws by motorists simply suggests that either most drivers on Nigerian roads did not attend driving schools or attended but did not understand what they were taught.
He added that others violate traffic laws deliberately.
“If a driver receives a statutorily maximum number of points, the driver shall be warned and or have his licence suspended or withdrawn,” Bisi Kazeem, FRSC’s public education officer, quoted Oyeyemi as saying.
“For between 1-10 point offence, the offender pays a certain amount of money as fines. While on the other hand, a warning notification is to be issued to a traffic offender who has accumulated 10 – 14 penalty points.
“Offenders who commit between 15-20 penalty points will face the temporal removal or interruption of authority or right to drive a vehicle or ride a motorcycle/tricycle, as a punishment for a period of time.
“While motorists who have accumulated 21 and above penalty points will face withdrawal of their drivers licence which means the condition of taking away the authority or the denial of the right to drive a motor vehicle or ride a motorcycle/tricycle on Nigeria
roads.”
Oyeyemi said the point system is already operational in most safety conscious countries.