Peter Okafor
The FCT Director of Road Traffic Service (DRTS} Dr Abdulateef Bello has reiterated the commitment of the directorate towards ensuring that only qualified and standard driving schools, who have met requirements of operating as certified driving schools operates in the FCT.
He said FCT is an important place of the territory as the nation’s capital where standards must be sustained.
Dr Lateef made this known during the DRTS stakeholder engagement at the Area council service commission hall in Abuja with the theme ” towards the implementation of fct driving school administration scheme.
He emphasised that the primary responsibility of issuing driver’s licence lies with the VIO.
“This is appropriate under the residual law, hence the necessitating of this engagement going by reports from the unit in charge of driving school supervision, which after inspection found many driving schools operating only on laptops, under the tree with rickety vehicles which is contrary to DRTS standards”, he said.
He challenged driving schools to live up to standards as failure to meet required criteria can attract penalties and closure.
He further emphasised that security of motorists in FCT matters to the directorate, and as such, driving schools must meet up standards before being given authority to operate. More than thirty driving school proprietors and representatives attended the engagement.
The President of Association of driving school instructors of Nigeria, Alhaji Umar Musa Mohammed as well as the pioneer President of the association Mr Nehemiah Sunday was also in attendance.
The DRTS director implored the driving schools to be good ambassadors of the country by embarking on safety of driver training and ensure that they do not compromise standard.
The Army visited the DRTS boss for VIO certification of Army transport drivers so as to avert carnages when on duty and at battlefield.
“Presently, collaboration already exists to check the driving skills of drivers in armed forces, police and the paramilitary that they are qualified after internal driving training
So the law extends to sister agencies too, since traffic is everyone’s business”,
the drts boss emphasised
