FRSC: Twenty Five Persons Convicted On Phone Use While Driving
To ensure accident prevention and reduction in the federal Capital Territory, the FCT Sector Command, Federal Road Safety commission, FRSC has secured conviction of over 25 persons arrested for wrongful use of phones while on steering.
Speaking with Newsday in an exclusive interview in her office last week, the FCT Sector Public Education Officer of the Command, Ngozi Imoroa explained her sector's determination to ensuring that the uses of phones while on steering remain a thing of the past.
According to the image maker, since the use of mobile court has not been able to yield the expected result in accident prevention and reduction, we now resort to a conventional court, which has already given us what we desired'.
'We are not telling people never to make use of their phones, but what we warn against is making use of them while driving, either making calls, receiving phones calls or trying to send or receive text messages', she added.
On motorists she said: “our timely advise to every body particularly the motorists is that, life has no duplicate, never you drink while driving and if that calls are very important to you always ensure that you park properly to answer them'.
It was gathered that some drivers arrested for the same offences of answering phones while driving are still in custody.
Legislators Slice Budget By N31b
The Kaduna House of Assembly has slashed the state's budget for this year by N31.021 billion.
Gov. Namadi Sambo had on Dec. 29, 2009 presented a budget estimate of N196.7 billion for the approval of the Assembly.
The assembly broke into standing committees on Jan. 27 to fast-track the budget defence by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and later committed the budget to its Committee on Appropriation and Implementation for harmonisation.
After a two-week interaction with relevant MDAs, including the Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, the Appropriation Committee submitted its report on Feb. 17.
Presenting the harmonised report, Alhaji Lawal Mato, the Chairman of the committee, told his colleagues that the budget had been sliced by more than N31 billion because of readjustments and the dwindling revenue fortunes of the state.
He said the figure was arrived at after making several amendments to reflect the economic realities of the state as well as to re-channel the allocations into priority areas.
According to him, the allocation of N42,742,123,842 for recurrent expenditure was increased by more than N3.038 billion, bringing the 2010 recurrent allocation to N45,780,650,815.
Similarly, the chairman said that capital expenditure was cut by more than N34.059 billion from the proposed N153,994,281,405 to N119,994,601,725.
``Our recommendation is based on realistic anticipated revenue. Less priority provisions were either deleted or re-channeled to fund priority projects,'' he said.
Mato commended all those who made constructive input during the defence and harmonisation exercises, including the media and civil society, for sensitising the lawmakers and the general public on their civic responsibilities.
He urged his colleagues to adopt the report, and expressed optimism that the electorate would be happy if the budget was implemented by the executive.
After contributions by members, the Majority Leader, Alhaji Bashir Idris, moved a motion for its adoption, while Malam Nazifi Mohammed (ANPP-Doka/Gabasawa) seconded it.
The motion received an overwhelming endorsement by the entire assembly when Speaker Ahmed Hassan-Jumare put it to a voice vote.
It would undergo a third reading and possible passage soon.
