The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dauda Biu, on Thursday dismissed a “wrongly-couched” memo in circulation regarding a directive issued to Commanding Officers on the need to end the practice of placing patrol operatives in offenders’ vehicles in the course of impoundment.
FRSC’s spokesman, Bisi Kazeem, in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, said the original directive, issued in a memo dated Sept. 12 2023, with reference FRSC/HQ/OPS/94/VOLXVI/094, only banned placing of staff in offenders’ vehicles “to escort for impoundment by patrol teams”.
The earlier statement, titled “Immediate Ban on the Placing of Staff in Offenders Vehicles to Escort for Impoundment”, was, however, wrongly interpreted as a complete ban on the impoundment of vehicles by the corps.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Corps Marshal’s directive was a correction of an earlier one saying impoundment of vehicles has been banned captured under paragraph III of the aforementioned memo,” Kazeem said in the statement.
“However, the corps marshal only banned placing of staff in offenders’ vehicles to escort for impoundment by patrol teams under any guise of traffic infraction committed with immediate effect.
“The corps regrets any confusion caused by the earlier memo, and would like to inform the public that the current position of the corps was as outlined in the corrected directive,” he said.
Recall that the powers of the FRSC to impound vehicles have been established by the courts in the case of Michael Benson vs, FRSC.
Michael Benson Esq., a lawyer in Akwa Ibom State, who was arrested by officers and men of the FRSC on patrol in 2017 for violating driver’s licence, vehicle licence and tyre rules and had his Toyota saloon car impounded and a fine imposed on him by the officers, had dragged the FRSC to the Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo. In suit no: HU/FHR. 21/2017, Benson challenged the powers and right of the FRSC to impound his vehicle and called for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights.
The trial judge, Justice Aniekan Akpan, dismissed the application for lacking in merit, saying the FRSC has the powers according to the constitution to impound vehicles and fine any erring motorist.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Benson proceeded to the Court of Appeal in Calabar asking it to upturn the judgement of the lower court, but ruling in June 2023, the three-man panel comprising Hon. Justice R. C. Agbo, Hon. Justice M. B. Barka, and Hon. Justice B. B. Aliyu said, “FRSC has the powers to arrest and prosecute within the ambit of the law denoted to the commission. We affirm the decision of the trial court and posit that the Appeal was grossly incompetent.”
