He said there's a need to increase the fines to serve as deterrent to traffic offenders.
Head of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, has revealed his plans for a significant increment in fines paid by traffic offenders in Nigeria.
While speaking on Channels Television on Monday, December 18, 2017, the FRSC boss said there's a need to increase the fines to serve as deterrent to traffic offenders in the country.
According to him, the present fine regime, which he said is currently under review by the National Assembly, is too low to deter repeat offending on Nigerian roads as offenders can easily afford them.
When asked what his recommendation would be, he said N50,000 would be a start to check the excesses of drivers on Nigerian roads.
"Fines are meant to serve as deterrent. If I give you a fine now for 50,000 (for) dangerous driving, it's to checkmate you and tell others that 'Look, be careful, I just paid 50,000'."
When asked if the fines are working, he said, "It's not working yet, why? It's too low. The National Assembly is already working on it. How can somebody using (*unintelligible) driving, and the citation is 4,000; jumping traffic light and the citation is less than 5,000? It's too small.
"I'm recommending minimum N50,000. If you pay N50,000 for violating traffic light; if you pay N100,000 for use of (*unintelligible) driving, you won't try it again. It will serve as deterrent.
"We need to sanitise the highways. We have 12.5 million vehicles on Nigerian roads to a road network of 204,000 kilometres. These habits must stop.
"The National Assembly is reviewing this and I'll press for maximum fines by the time it's out.
"4,000 is nothing. When we go to joints at night , how much is fish? Fish is 5,000, so people are ready to pay.
"My take is this, and quote me, the fines should be increased to serve as deterrent. The present fines regime is not serving the purpose it's meant for. We need to be careful."
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FRSC committed to enforcing proper traffic conducts
During his interview, the FRSC boss also spoke about the commission's commitment to bringing sanity to Nigerian roads as he extolled the success of the emotional psychology tests for traffic offenders.
He also commented on the public conduct of officers and his efforts to curb misconduct by dismissing any officer that undermines the reputation of the commission.