The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has arrested 1,691 people in just five days during a sweeping enforcement operation targeting dangerous road safety violations and fraudulent vehicle identification across Nigeria.
Codenamed Operation Guduma, the special intervention was executed simultaneously across critical transport corridors in eleven (11) states, with officers cracking down on overloading, mixloading, and the use of fake diplomatic number plates.
A breakdown of the arrest, as contained in a statement issued on Monday by the FRSC Deputy Corps Commander,Corps Public Education Officer, Osondu Ohaeri, shows 1,003 detentions for number plate-related offences, 683 for overloading and mix-loading, and five suspects apprehended for using fake diplomatic number plates.
Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed described the findings as both revealing and alarming, saying the operation had exposed critical vulnerabilities in the nation’s vehicle identification systems that could fuel road crashes and facilitate criminal activity.
“Road safety cannot be negotiated,” Mohammed said, warning
that the misuse of diplomatic number plates and persistent loading violations represent not merely traffic offences but direct threats to public safety and national security.
According to him, the Corps will continue to deploy intelligence-led enforcement strategies to dismantle such practices wherever they exist.
The operation also uncovered numerous vehicles operating with dangerously unlatched containers and overloaded cargoes, conditions that significantly increase the likelihood of catastrophic crashes, fatalities and economic losses.
The Corps Marshal warned that FRSC will sustain its zero-tolerance approach towards violators, stressing that road safety cannot be negotiated and that every preventable crash avoided translates into lives saved, families protected and national productivity preserved.
Buoyed by the success of Operation Guduma, the FRSC has announced plans to institutionalise the intervention across major corridors nationwide while strengthening collaboration with security and law enforcement agencies to ensure that offenders are not only apprehended but prosecuted.
