As Lafarge Africa Plc continues to promote Safety in its operations and beyond, the building solutions company has facilitated the training and employment of about 16 youths in parts of Cross River state to work as community road marshals in two local government areas in Cross River state. The company’s Director of Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development Mrs. Folashade Ambrose-Medebem who disclosed this said the Road Safety Awareness Campaign was part of the company’s corporate social investments in the area of safety. The benefitting communities are Akpabuyo and Akamkpa local government areas.
Lafarge Africa Plc Logistics Director, Bruno Hounkpati whose team put the entire Safety campaign together said the objective of the campaign is to increase safety consciousness and encourage the involvement of regular residents in road safety management in the state. Mr Hounkpati said Lafarge Africa Plc was in partnership with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) in Cross River state to facilitate the safety awareness campaign in the area. Lafarge Africa will pay the wages of all the newly recruited community road marshals.
The Community Road Marshals will serve as first respondents to issues pertaining to road challenges and also give traffic directions to trucks and other road users. They will also facilitate timely dissemination of information and quicken the response time when there are emergency incidents on the road.
The road safety awareness campaign involves educating and training all road users on the safe use of roads including how to interpret roads signs either as a motorist, motor cyclist or pedestrians. Over 250 Community members including motorcycle riders popularly called Okada have benefited from the awareness programme. All the Okada riders received crash helmets and reflective vest from Lafarge Africa Plc to enhance their safety on the road at any time of the day.
By Ijeoma Nwachukwu
