Association to offset medical bills of road accident victims

•To partner FRSC on levy

Association of Rights and Welfare of Passengers in Nigeria (ARWPAN), has unveiled plans to partner the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and other road safety stakeholders to introduce an N10 levy on each passenger plying Nigerian roads. The levy is expected to offset medical bills of road accident victims.

The Board Chairman of ARWPAN, Princess Onojeghuo, while expressing sadness at the avoidable deaths accident victims on Nigerian roads due to lack of support when rushed to the hospitals, said with the pull of funds such issues will be averted.

Speaking during its yearly meeting, which had in attendance various state representatives in Abuja, Onojeghuo explained that ARWPAN was established mainly to give passengers a voice from the various transport providers, who serve over 60 million passengers daily.

According to her, passengers across 36 states of the Federation, and the Federal Capital Territory, embarking on a trip will be expected to pay a sum of N10 only in addition to the transport fare. The total sum accrued from the states will then be remitted to the Association to form a pool of funds.

She noted that not only will this move be beneficial to the passengers but also the economy, as there will be value-added to the N10, as products and services that will require the use of the fee.

Enumerating other benefits, the National Vice President of ARWPAN, Solomon Kpomah, said the idea of charging N10 is to reduce the burden on passengers so as to make it easy for them to pay, saying with the huge number of persons who travel daily nationwide, the fee will amount to something huge for the association to work with.

“We will not just wait for accidents to happen before we give support to victims; we try to also prevent accidents by ensuring that vehicles are properly loaded and are in order; for instance, small vehicle owners with one or two vehicles that may not be able to muster enough money to buy new tyres. But if there are well-designed programmes where such persons can collect tyres and pay gradually, then you won’t see people running with bad tyres. We want to support the people doing the business of transportation at a small level as much as possible to help prevent accidents from happening.”

He also disclosed that the Association is already in talks with the FRSC and the Police to create a synergy that will be beneficial to intending passengers.

“What we expect from passengers is to show commitment to the kind of support we want to give. So every person that will board a vehicle, where the presence of ARWPAN is and the person is supposed to pay an additional N10 to the transport cost. With that, it is like a ticket and once you have that, it becomes liable on ARWPAN to see how you can get our support.”

He added that only passengers who pay the extra charge of N10 will benefit from the support in the event of an accident, which will require medical attention. “If you don’t contribute, it means you are not part of those that should benefit, because part of that will be sent to the insurance companies to support the Association and victim.”