Fashola Urges Lawmakers to Include Community Service in FRSC Act.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has urged lawmakers to include non-custodian sentences such as community service and correctional penalties as part of the sanctions in the proposed amendment of the FRSC Act 2004.

Mr Fashola, who spoke at a public hearing with the House of Representatives Committee on Road Safety on Monday, said that the amendment to prescribe stiffer penalties for traffic offences reaching up to 60,000 Naira is timely, but might not achieve deterrence as envisaged by the proposed amendment.

A former lawmaker and member of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Uchenna Ekwe, however, said that the fines should be increased to over N100,000 and should also be broken into two categories to ensure that VIP offenders were duly sanctioned.

According to the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Road Safety, Solomon Marem, the public hearing focused on two issues – the amendment of the Road Safety Act 2004 to include penalties for certain traffic offences or increase penalties for existing ones and to ensure enforcement of conditions for establishing, registering and operating driving schools.