The Zonal Commanding Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps in charge of the FCT and Niger, Assistant Corps Marshal Shehu Mohammed, says there is no mystery about “ember months”.
Mohammed made his view known on Monday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.
He said that the reality, however, was that the so-called “ember months“ were not in any way different from the other eight months of the year.
According to him, tragedies occur in the “ember months“ just as they happened in the other months.
Mohammed said that ascribing what he called “needless spiritual and mystical undertone to tragic happenings“ during the ‘ember’ months was wrong.
He decried such undertone as the usual Nigerian way of trivialising serious issues instead of using methodical means to appraise matters of crucial public concerns.
He implored motorists and commuters that rather than clothing the “ember months in a garb of gratuitous mystery“ they should realise that the months were not different from the other eight months of the year.
“The truth is that there is usually an increase in the tempo of public, private and corporate activities during these ember months.
“In the past few weeks, cases of preventable tragedies in the form of road mishaps have been reported in the mass media.
“The most recent is the one that happened on Yangoji-Gwagwalada Road in the FCT where 19 passengers were killed and burnt beyond recognition,“ he said.
Mohammed said that most of the road crashes in “ember Months“ happened at night with low visibility and the delayed response of first respondents.
“There is little response in the night and that leads to fatalities. There is no mystery about ember months.
“Once we abide by preventable measures we should be able to bring down the number of fatalities to the barest minimum, ” he said.
Mohammed urged commercial drivers and other road users to always respect the sanctity of human life by observing road safety measures.
“One thing is sure and that is nothing is wrong with the ember’ months, rather we should rid ourselves of what is wrong with us,“ he said.
Mohammed praised the FRSC Acting Corps Marshal, Dauda Biu, for undertaking an on-the-spot assessment of the Yangoji-Gwagwalada Road crash.
He said the action showed his purposeful leadership and commitment to the cause of road safety.
(NAN)
