On Monday, the Federal Road Safety Commission’s (FRSC) authority to patrol exclusively federal highways was upheld by the Court of Appeal sitting in Asaba, Delta State.
FRSC’s appeal of Justice E. Nwite’s ruling at the Federal High Court in Warri was rejected by a three-judge panel in the case FRSC vs. Darlington Ehikim (CA/AS/276/2019).
On January 25, 2019, the Federal High Court ruled in favour of the NBA Warri member plaintiff and granted all reliefs requested, including a determination that the FRSC has no jurisdiction to operate and/or carry out any activity on State and Local government roadways.
In addition to finding the FRSC N10 million, the trial court imposed an injunction barring it from all roadways save federal highways.
Mr Kunle Edun, counsel for the plaintiff, praised the trial court and the appeal court for upholding the correct reading of the law.
According to him, the Court of Appeal ruling means that FRSC officers who aren’t on federal highways but are instead operating on local roads to extort motorists have no legal standing to be there.
Because the FRSC is a federal agency, Edun argued, it should only be concerned with federal roads, and the Judgment reaffirms this.
