Alhaji Salihu Adamu, Nasarawa State Chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), says none of his members will purchase the speed limiting device due to its high price.
Adamu spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia on Thursday.
He said the union had pleaded with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to convince its selected vendors of the device to reduce the price, but to no avail.
“We don’t have plans to buy the device for N45,000. We don’t have that money. We told FRSC to go back and bargain that for commercial drivers we will agree to buy it for N5,000,” Adamu said.
According to him, the amount pegged for the device is beyond the means of commercial drivers in the state.
Adamu also said that the union had dialogued with the vendors in Benue and Nasarawa but no favourable agreement was reached.
The chairman assured that once the price of the device was pegged at N5,000, the union would buy all the devices and compel its members to install them.
The NURTW chairman accused the FRSC of segregation, by compelling only commercial drivers to instal the device.
He claimed that private drivers caused significant chunk of road traffic crashes across the country.
“We are asking them why are they not selling to the private drivers? Is it because they are people of means and our drivers are not?
“Let them sell it to the general public. Afterall, some of the accidents that occur is because of the recklessness of private drivers,” he said.
The Nasarawa State Sector Commander of FRSC, Mrs Faustina Alegbe advised the union to form groups and negotiate with vendors to get the device at cheaper rate.
“They have the power to bargain with any accredited vendor. If they go as a group, I believe that the vendors will consider their number and deal with them,” Alegbe said.
She appealed to motorists to drive very carefully during the ember months to avoid road traffic crashes.
