Mustapha Isah Kwaru
4 January 2009
Borno state commandant of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Chidi Eddeh, has advised residents who patronize commercial motorcyclists, otherwise called okada as means of transportation, to acquire their personal crash helmets.
Eddeh told Kanem Trust in an interview that there was need for individuals to possess personal helmets to be used at their convenience to avoid possible contact with infections which may arise from using helmets belonging to commercial motorcyclists, used by numerous passengers.
"Passengers are complaining that it is unhealthy for them to use a single helmet as others with hair-related diseases could also use it and it would subsequently infect others. Let me make it clear that this cannot be an excuse. Anyone who is afraid of being infected with diseases should purchase a personal helmet so that it can be used by he or she alone," the commandant said.
He noted that in order to ensure strict compliance with the policy of wearing helmets across Borno, FRSC held series of meetings with commercial motorcyclists in addition to enlightenment campaigns organized for them on the importance of the subject.
Eddeh said the helmets are meant mainly to protect the cyclist and his passenger and not for the benefit of government or FRSC, arguing that accident statistics have shown that many cyclists whose heads got hurt ended up dying or sustaining severe injuries.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Commercial Motorcycle Operators in the state, Kaigama Mohammed has raised alarm that the prices of helmets have been inflated. He noted that when helmet sellers realized that their products were now needed, they took advantage to hike the price from N1,000 to N2,000.
He, therefore, called on FRSC to intervene so that every cyclist in the state would afford helmets as required by the authority.
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