The Court of Appeal sitting in Asaba, has affirmed the judgment of the Federal High Court in the state, which pronounced that the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) officials could only operate on federal roads.
A panel of the court in suit No. CA/AS/276/2019: FRSC Vs Darlington Ehikim dismissed the appeal filed by the commission challenging the judgment of Justice E. Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Warri.
Politics Nigeria gathered that the Federal High Court had, on January 25, 2019, entered judgement in favour of the plaintiff, who is a member of the NBA in Warri and granted all the reliefs sought, which includes a declaration that the FRSC has no legal right to operate and/or carry any activity on state and local governments roads across the federation.
The trial court also issued restraining orders against the FRSC from operating on roads other than federal highways and also awarded a cost of N10 million against the commission.
Plaintiff’s lawyer, Kunle Edun, hailed both the trial and appellate court for standing by the proper interpretation of the rule of law.
Edun stressed that by virtue of the Court of Appeal judgment, FRSC personnel who are on roads inside cities and towns except Federal highways, have no obligation to be there because their operations on such roads are meant to extort road users and it is illegal.
He further stated that the judgment re-emphasises the federal structure of the country because the FRSC being a federal agency, should only concern itself with federal roads.
