As part of the need to ensure compliance of safety measures on Nigerian roads, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said it is considering setting up mobile court to enforce the usage of pedestrian bridge across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The corps' unit commander in Lugbe, Aisha Sa'ad, stated this at a sensitization campaign, adding that FRSC would collaborate with other law enforcement agencies to carry-out the exercise.

She said the use of joint taskforce and mobile court became imperative after previous enlightenment campaigns yielded no desired result.

She continued "We have been educating them not to cross the highway but to use the pedestrian bridges. We have done that in various ways and we see that we are not having expected result. That's why we thought of sensitizing them again before we start looking at way of enforcement by using joint taskforce or mobile court."

According to her, a section of the national traffic regulation says any pedestrian that crosses the highway; there is certain fine for such. "That's to the discretion of the Magistrate, either remanding them in prison or giving them the option of fine."

She said the corps had taken the enlightenment campaigns to mosques and churches, including "house-to-house" campaign to educate community members and their leaders on the usage of the pedestrian bridge.

On the location of the pedestrian bridge, she said it is better and safer to take the five-minute walk to use the bridge than to risk life by crossing the highway.

Also speaking, Jide Bello, FRSC's Special Marshal, said the campaign is necessary "because we realized that lives have been lost as a result of crossing the high way."

Residents who spoke to Daily Trust expressed mixed feeling on the use of the bridges. Those crossing the highways complained of distance to their community while others said it is safer to use the bridge than dashing through vehicles on high speed.