Federal Government Rejects WHO's Report On Yearly Death Toll of 39000 Persons in Road Accident

The Federal government has refuted the report of World Health Organisation (WHO) which indicated that no fewer than 39000 persons die annually of road accident in Nigeria.

According to WHO's 2018 Global Status Report on Road Safety, it said: "deaths continue to rise, with an annual 1.35 million fatalities. Road traffic injuries are now the leading killer of children and young people aged 05-29 years.

“The risk of a road traffic death remains three times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries, with rates highest in Africa (26.6 per 100,000 populations) and lowest in Europe (9.3 per 100,000 populations).

“Every year, over 39,000 Nigerians die from road crashes.”

However, in an interview with journalists on Monday in Abuja, the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said that the estimated figures from WHO were not true, adding that if it was so, it would have resulted to a state of emergency.

The Corps Marshal said; “But there is need for us to get WHO to sit down and see those efforts government have made so far. The Government has made so much effort in road safety management and administration.

“So it cannot be the same old story and the funniest part of all this report is that there was no mention of the effort at the World Bank towards improving the road safety management in Nigeria.

“World bank has invested so much on the data management. A lot of efforts have been made so far but WHO still sticks to their own report.”

Also, the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi also said that the reports from WHO was not a true reflection of current situation on road safety and administration in the country.

According to him “I disagree with WHO when they showed me the report on the numbers of people that die daily in Nigeria.

“The reason is that the moment you say 39,000 persons have died in Nigeria, that 100 persons per day and that’s huge, even COVID-19 wasn’t as serious as this".

“Because the moment it gets to 100 deaths per day, it becomes an emergency for the government to address,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Mr Osagie Ehanire, said that the ministry would engage WHO country representative to have a conversation.

Ehanire said that the conversation would be based on what it counts as data of road traffic accidents.

In his words; “We shall start a conversation. We will also set up teams as well. But we will engage the Country rep. first and then set up a teams to look at the issues, ”