Fines Are Meant To Deter Motorists From Committing Traffic Offences – Garba

LEADERSHIP

By DAVID ADUGE-ANI

— Jan 30, 2016 3:02 am | Leave a comment

Danjuma Aliyu Garba is the director, FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services (VIO). In this interview with DAVID ADUGE-ANI he speaks on some achievements recorded since his tenure at the directorate.

You came into office in 2013, can you tell us some of your achievements so far.

Well I came into office in August 2014 and the achievements I can modestly present are: one, We try to improve the capacity of staff and also to improve on our services in the processes and procedures to make them more effective to serve the people better, especially on vehicle registration. We have made it in such a way that you don’t have to lobby anybody to register your vehicle.

Also we try to see that vehicles registration is done as fast as possible. We also emphasize on improving the infrastructure and the working environment and make the offices conducive for work. Again, we try to make it easy for people to come here and make their vehicles registration and license renewal faster instead of spending hours. Not only that we have improved our facilities here, we have also added three centres to improve our services.

What are you doing about improving ICT in your offices?

Yes, you will find out that the way to go is through the use of the ICT. When we discovered that the capacity was not enough, we have to build our ICT facilities. We already have a computer centre here and another centre is waiting for the minister to commission. It is a hundred-sitter computer centre, which we are going use for the training of our staff.

We are also building drivers institute which will serve as a model in FCT. We are currently talking with some partners to see how we can get simulators to store this equipment. It will train different categories of drivers, both commercial drivers and private ones as well sales agent and others.

Some of the complains are that motorists coming to renew their licenses spend days before obtaining such document

It depends on the document you are applying for. For instance If you are applying for new number plates we expect that within two hours you should be able to get attended to and your vehicle is registered and you get an alert. The same is applicable to other vehicles registration.

But at What Cost ?

The driver’s license is about N6, 350.00. Basically anything outside that is not acceptable. While the number plates depending on the vehicle you are using.

How do you check fraud in the system?

That is why we emphasize that if you want to register your vehicle, come to the office, because the fees are well spelt out. It is only when you go touts that you get swindled. But if you follow the right process you will not fall into the wrong hands.

What are you doing about staff welfare?

We are improving on our service delivery and we are trying to make people feel our impact. Welfare of staff is an ongoing thing and we know that any staff that has any health-related issue, we always try to argument the cost for treatment. We have also been paying the salaries of our staff as and when due.

The activities of this taskforce, called VIO Taskforce are worrisome to many motorists in Abuja. What is your opinion on that taskforce team?

Yes the task force is a legitimate team. It is a taskforce set up by the FCT minister himself and it is being monitored from his office. The aim of the taskforce is to clean the city. You will find out that every Nigerian wants Abuja to be a model for other cities. But we have discovered that there are distortions which made the setting up of the taskforce necessary to clean the city.

We have also noticed that there are a lot of vehicles operating illegally in the city as commercial vehicles. We have warned that any vehicle that wants to operate commercial should be painted. If it is not painted it is illegal. We also see illegal motor parks and car wash springing up in some parts of the city. So part of the functions of the taskforce is to rid the city of these illegal activities.

But why does the taskforce team collect as much as N25, 000.000 from defaulting motorists

Do you know that fines are meant to serve as deterrent? We have seen in some other cities where more than that amount is charged for traffic offences. It is meant to deter people from committing such an offence again. But you will find out that some of these motorists believe that traffic offences are not offences and that is why they do it with impunity.