Minister of Power, Works and Housing Fashola Proposes Community Service For Traffic Offenders

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola on Monday proposed community service for traffic offenders in Nigeria. Fashola said this while making the proposal in Abuja at the House of Representatives’ public hearing on a proposed Bill to amend the Federal Road Safety Commission Act 2004. He urged the legislature to become more innovative in the penalties to be enacted into law, in order to effectively reduce accidents on the roads. The minister said that jail terms and fines do not correct category of offenders who are residual, thus his suggestion of community service.

“The penalties proposed in the bill seem to focus on custodian and peculiar to the extent that they have existed for quite a while without seeing an appreciable reduction in the incidents. “Perhaps parliament can be a little more daring and a little more innovative in some of the kinds of penalties it wants to consider. Irrespective of the fine, they will commit the offence anyway. “So parliament in this sense is invited to consider sanctions like community service,” he said He also called for a psychological test and compulsory retraining and recertification of such offenders under supervision.