The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, on Wednesday said it would commence implementation of speed-limiting device on commercial vehicles in the country.

The announcement was made on Wednesday at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.

Boboye Oyeyemi, the Corps Marshal of the FRSC, said he was happy to formally announce the commencement despite numerous obstacles faced by officials while analysing the technology and trying to convince Nigerians about the benefits of its acceptance.

Mr. Oyeyemi said the obstacles forced the agency to shift the launching date from initial June 1, 2015, schedule to the new date.

“The final directive from the presidency is clear; the enforcement date for the implementation of the speed limiting device is on Oct. 1 and we have had series of stakeholders meeting,” Mr. Oyeyemi said.

“The essence of today’s meeting is to finally convey the directive of the federal government to the stakeholders that with effect from Oct. 1, the implementation and enforcement would commence.”

Mr. Oyeyemi said a platform that will serve as monitoring system for total compliance of the policy had been put in place as well as punitive measures for errant drivers.

“We already have the portal that we will use to monitor this, we don’t need to pursue any vehicle, we will just stop you like we verify licence.

“On the tablet we will check whether your vehicle has been installed with the device, if it has not, we will impound the vehicle and we make sure that you do the right thing.

“We are not talking about fines now ,it’s to save lives so we will impound the vehicle then the owner of the vehicle will be made to install the device before the journey continues.” Mr. Oyeyemi said.

Mr. Oyeyemi said the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, was responsible for the design of the policy, adding that a review would be conducted after three to six months of commencement to appraise compliance by motorists.

Security agencies, federal lawmakers, bureaucrats as well as members of road transport unions were represented at the event.