About 168 persons lost their lives while a total of 969 people were injured in various accidents that occurred between January and July 2019 in Bauchi, Borno and Yobe States, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said.

The Zonal Commander of FRSC, Assistant Corps Marshall, Imoh Etuk, disclosed this on Thursday at the 3rd Quarter retreat for Heads of Operations in the Zone.

He said the strategic meeting was aimed at making plans for the end of year activities.

Etuk also disclosed that the 969 people injured signifies a 56.3% reduction in the number of those injured within the period in the zone in 2018 which was 1, 245.

He added that within the period, 188 road traffic crashes were recorded in the three states compared to the 276 recorded in the same period in 2018 which represents a 59.5% reduction.

According to him, between January and July 2019, a total of 1, 360 people were involved in the crashes as compared to the 1, 981 that were involved in the same period in 2018 which is a 59.3% reduction.

The Zonal Commander lamented the many unclaimed driver’s licences in the zone which he said were 4,795 in the three states.

He said:

“We have unclaimed driver’s licences and part of what we will discuss is on how to ensure that we clear all of them as soon as possible in the three states.

“The unclaimed licenses in the three states are: Bauchi – 734, Borno – 3,658 while Borno has 403. Although many of them claim that they have done all the processes needed, but many of them have not claimed their licences. We therefore call on the public to hasten up and get theirs.”

Etuk stated that the FRSC will put an eye on the driving schools at this period “so that there are no untoward practices.”

He stated that many people are still driving without licences vowing to start a crackdown on those who fail to comply.

“What we found out is that many people are still going out, for instance in Bauchi, without driver’s licences. There’s going to be a crackdown on the people driving without driver’s licences, those using fake licences and those using temporary ones that are not genuine,” he stated.

He said that the enforcement that the corp said it will begin in October, 2019 for riders and those who have no licences will still be 2nd October, 2019 pointing out that “there will be no shift of date.

“We want people to know that what we are doing helps the security architecture of this country, we are not just doing this because we want to enforce it, no, but to help security especially in the northeast where we are.”