It is evening but business activities were in top gear at the Chisco Park in Jibowu, Yaba, Lagos. While a good number of people are queuing to get their tickets from the front desk, others are sorting their luggage and presenting their tickets for inspection as they set to board the Abuja bound-luxury bus. The night travelers had more men than women. Sighted among them was also a youth corps member, Mathew Ebika who was waiting to board an Abuja-bound luxury bus. He is set on a journey to Okene where he had to present himself for NYSC clearance the following morning.
“I wanted to travel in the morning but I couldn’t get a day bus because my luggage was bulky. I even went to Ibadan but I had to come back here and use the option of the night bus. Night travelling is not my thing; I only use it when it is necessary”, he said.
Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. Many night travelers have had to embark on such journeys because of the need to keep some urgent appointment. For others, it is an easier alternative for road travels. It promises an escape from the stress of day time travelling, especially for destinations like Lagos -Abuja or other popular routes which may take too many kilometers to cover.
While many will describe travelling at night as fun owing to some whimsical exciting adventure of sorts, others have had gory tales to deter them from night travelling save for the need to keep an urgent appointment or execute an assignment.
Oluwaloseyi Babaeko still bore fatal remembrance of a night journey he undertook three years ago from Lagos to Sokoto. Babaeko, who boarded a Sokoto state transport service bus around 5pm at a Lagos park, was headed to the seat of the caliphate to honour the call for national youth service. The journey was smooth until around 4 am on Kebbi highway when the vehicle conveying him to his destination was attacked by Fulani herdsmen.
“The two rear tyres of the bus suddenly burst while on motion; the vehicle skidded off the road and we landed in a pit on the Kebbi highway. As I crawled out of the mangled bus, I discovered that I had a fractured leg and a dislocated hip. Other people in the bus, including youth corps members, also sustained injuries. The accident occurred on July 3rd 2012 at 4am”, he recount sorrowfully.
He added that the accident did not stop the Fulani herdsmen from robbing the injured passengers as the victims were disposed of valuables, including money. They writhed in pains for two hours before policemen arrived at the scene.
Babaeko, now based in the UK where he is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Leeds further bares his mind on the phenomenon: “Night journey has its good side but the fragile security situation in Nigeria has made it a dangerous adventure. There is also the bad roads and the reckless nature of most of our drivers. In short, I will say it is a bad idea to travel at night. I had an accident from it and I am yet to recover three years after as I will need a hip replacement”.
An editor remembers
An editor of a Lagos-based newspaper, who pleads anonymity, also relived his experience about some night journeys by luxurious buses which he undertook many years ago when he was still a reporter.
“My friend,” he told our reporter, “those experiences were scary. I remember I was called late in the evening many years ago to be in Abuja by 9a.m. the following day over a matter I had been pursuing; because of the urgency, I had to undertake the trip by night bus and I almost regretted it.
“While others were sleeping on the way, I couldn’t; I was very scared because I had read reports about how many passengers were waylaid and robbed during such night journeys. Midway, our bus suddenly came to a place where many other buses had stopped and parked. We too had no choice than to park and wait. What was the matter? We were told that armed robbers were operating ahead, that it was not safe to go ahead yet. Our ‘escort’ (an armed security personnel hired by bus to protect the passengers against attacks) alighted. We all launched into prayers calling for divine intervention. The situation was quite charged. However, after about 40 minutes of waiting, there was a signal that we could now proceed. I heaved a very deep sigh of relief.”
The editor said some years earlier, he had to take another night bus to Kaduna. The experience, according to him, was similar. He said: “The journey to Kaduna was smooth until we got to a village I cannot now remember. There was information that we had to stop and park because armed robbers were operating somewhere ahead. We had to wait for about 30 minutes before we were cleared to move. But the rest journey was smooth.”
The editor added: “The most recent experience was in 1999. I had to cover the general elections then in Yola, Adamawa State. That was the election that brought in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. Yola was the base of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was then running for Adamawa governorship. Of course, he won the election and later became Vice President.
“I had made the journey to Yola by flight to Kano and then Kano to Yola by road. It was an 11-hour journey. The journey went far into the night. I became scared when I heard in the vehicle that Kano-Yola Road then was infested with armed robbers who frequently blocked the road and robbed night passengers at will.
“In fact, my heart nearly jumped out of my mouth when after negotiating a bend around 10pm, we suddenly came by an unusual road block mounted with big tree trunks that didn’t allow any passage at all. Our vehicle stopped. What was the matter? For the five minutes that it took our driver to decide to request help to move those tree trunks away from the road to allow us to pass, it was as if the ground should open up and swallow me. I was perspiring profusely.
“Going by the horrifying tales I had been regaled by a co-passenger inside the Peugeot 505 station wagon car, I had thought that those who mounted the road block were only lurking inside the bush, waiting to pounce on us. However, mercifully, nobody was in sight and nobody came out from the bush while the road block was being cleared by the driver, assisted by some courageous passengers who could alight. It was when we got to Yola that we discovered how lucky we were because a passenger bus had just been robbed before we got to that road block!
“On the return journey, based on advice, I went to Jos by road from Yola, a distance of about six hours, to connect a flight to Lagos. However, I was told in Jos Airport that the next available flight to Lagos was three days away! I can’t afford to wait in Jos for three days doing nothing. So, I had to take another night bus to Lagos, a 14-hour journey, against my will. But the Jos-Lagos journey was smooth. No incident, but I didn’t enjoy it at all!”
Another practitioner of the pen profession, who also did now want his name in print, who is of the opinion that night travelling could be fun while recounting an experience, added that the adventure could be a nightmare as well.
“The ‘luxurious bus’, as it is locally called, delayed about an hour from its usual 5pm departure time. That was because sorting out the passengers’ luggage into the compartments took a while. It was a well-loaded bus, by the time it drove out of its terminus at Jibowu area of Lagos. We were on our way to Abuja with arrival time at Jabi expectedly being 7am the following day”.
He said he preferred the night journey because it allows him to sleep all through the journey. He and the co-passengers were in that state of sleep after a dinner of Jollof rice and fried meat served by the transporter company before fate brought in a different story as the journey progressed into midnight.
The unusual happened! It was the shattering noise of the bus windows as it splashed splinters of glasses on the bodies of passengers that violently woke him.
“The gunshots were repeated again with more spray of bullets around and inside the bus. Although the bulky driver struggled to keep moving, but a rain of bullets on the windscreen suddenly seemed to force the driver to halt the bus.
“I thought the driver was actually dead. How could he survive such! He didn’t have a chance. The inside lights of the bus went off as the engine stopped and darkness enveloped the surrounding. I couldn’t even see who was next to me. The only noises that followed were menacing threats from the armed robbers instructing us to co-operate and bring out all our phones, money and other valuables and surrender them.
“Before I could wake properly, they were inside the bus, hitting the passengers in the front seat with their guns. I shivered with fright! That must have been the state of my fellow passengers that horrible night”.
The journalist recalled that after they were disposed of their items, they were forced into the dark bush by the road with a stern warning to lie on the floor. The robbers went on to rape some of the female passengers. When the robbers were done with their acts, the passengers were left in the cold environment dark in the midnight.
As the robbers made to leave while complaining that they did not gain much financially from the robbery, the passengers laid in their vulnerable state with the fear of being re-robbed by another set of armed men until the driver emerged and struggled with the engine.
Having realized that they had just gone past Ife when the robbery happened, they had to accept the reality that the journey to Abuja had been aborted as the vehicle wobbled back to Ife.
“It was at Ife that those of us who were still intending to complete the journey were given a choice of joining another bus. I did. There was no returning to Lagos for me that night because I had appointments lined up in Abuja. Though I had been dispossessed of my phones, I did not lost money to the night thieves. A particular passenger lost more than N400, 000, while others lost other varying amounts. I got safely to Abuja, but I have long stopped travelling by night bus.”
‘Not a women’s world’
Before Madam Toyin Aribilola relocated from the north to come stay permanently in Lagos, she confessed to being a perpetual night traveler plying the Kaduna- Lagos route regularly to trade in ladies wears.
“I like night travelling because once you close your eyes, by the time you open it, you are at your destination. The journey seems shorter during the night and you can be sure of less stress on the road. That was between 1995 to 2000, I don’t know how the roads are like now because I have not travelled far distance in recent times.
Did she record any horrible experience? “Yes”, she said. “On two occasions”.
“The first was while returning from Lagos to Kaduna in a coaster bus. We got to Birnu Kwari not far from Kaduna and a stone was hurled at the windscreen of the vehicle. The sound was deafening. The people in the front seat were splattered with glasses but the driver didn’t stop. I almost urinated in my pant. I thought the bus would just dive into the bush and we would all perish. We were shouting the name of the God in our different religion. Luckily, we escaped to a safe place and later discovered that we could have been victims of an armed robbery attack save for the courageous act of the driver who didn’t stop despite the attack.
“The second experience was when I had to enter the vehicle known as Bolekaja or Tan le se. I was also returning but I couldn’t get a bus from Lagos to Kaduna. I went to Ibadan hoping I would get a vehicle but it was a futile effort. Then I saw this Bolekaja mini-trailer built with planks heading to Kaduna. I didn’t know anybody I could spend the night with in Ibadan; so I dared the odds and entered. I climbed and sat with another woman. To our front were some cows that were also part of the journey. Some Hausa boys sat at the top hedge of the vehicles smoking weeds. The funny thing was that their legs were even touching our heads and as the woman beside me kept hitting their legs with her slippers shouting ‘tan le se’, it was then I understood the meaning of the word. We could not even change our seats because of the fear of moving too close to the cows packed in the vehicle. I had my heart in my mouth the whole period of the journey. I was afraid of being raped and robbed by those boys as they were high on substance”.
Mr. Patrick Adie, is a businessman whose business interest makes him travel by bus often in the night. The Reporter met him at the Jibowu park where he was in an Abuja-bound Sienna car for a night journey. He speaks on hassles he has experienced: “I have seen drivers who sleep while driving at night and they have accidents. The second is the pot holes and the robberies. Most times, sick people are also transferred through the night but the tension increases their sickness”.
He narrated an experience in 2007 with robbers at Okene while coming from Abuja to Lagos where they met robbers. Since then, he vowed never go on a night journey except if there is an assignment worth risking.
“There was a time I was on a journey to Sokoto and it was the same thing. Sometimes you may see dead bodies on the road and your conscience would be sired. It is better going on the day time when the driver will be seeing the road clearly. Even if he has mastered the road before then, he might get to that point where he is tempted to sleep. That is a grave danger”.
He advised government to dualise the roads and also station security men to man major roads, especially spots like Kogi, Benin bypass and Ife road which are notorious for robbers. Having two drivers is better so that while one is sleeping, the other is on the wheel, he added.
‘Bad roads, robberies, callous policemen ruin fun of night travelling- Drivers
Perhaps it is not farfetched to state that no one feels the tension of the pressure of night travelling as the drivers who navigate the vehicles.
Mr. Frank Chuks, a businessman cum driver who has been driving for 15 years, described night travelling as fun and risky.
“The fun part of travelling in the night is that you can stop, take some bottles and sometimes enjoy banters with mobile policemen. Sometimes you also run when you see people running maybe from armed robbers, you stop and park somewhere. I think it is risky and fun.”
According to him, driving in the night on Nigerian roads is not safe since the bad state of the road makes it easier for armed robbers to attack travelers.
Reacting to why people still patronize night travelling in spite of the risk involved, he stated: “People go for night travel because of urgent necessities. Considering how unsafe and unkept the roads are, I don’t think any reasonable person should wait till evening before embarking on a journey at night. Travelling in the night should only come as a desperate need”.
To make night journey less troublesome, he appealed to government to fix the roads and curb the activities of terror police men who use the opportunity of the cover of the night to harass and extort drivers.
Another driver, Mr Ben Udechukwu, who drives a van which transports cargoes from Lagos to Port Harcourt, he revealed that there are times when robbers disguise as policemen to attack vehicles in the night.
“My experience especially during the festive season was not funny. The road was busy and bad especially from Shagamu to Ajebandele. I pray the government to help us to do something about it. Sometimes you will see trailers running on one way.”
Mr. Bisi Kazeem, Head, Media Relations and Strategy in a phone interview said (FRSC) in a phone interview said FRSC plays an advisory role because the commission is not empowered under legislation to ban night travelling.
“It is advisable to avoid night travel because of the risk involved. The driver is not able to see both the road surface and poth-holes well in the night. Even when there is an accident, rescue is delayed because FRSC does not work fully in the night; we only do skeletal duties for security reasons since we do don’t carry arms. Every command has a rescue team but in the night, it is not as functional as it is done in day time”.
Mr. Kazeem also said crash-related cases are rampant at night because some drivers are fond of over speeding, while some drive under the influence of alchohol and use drugs to stay awake. This, he said, comes with many attendant risks. In the night, there is also the likelihood of drivers misbehaving because of the limited presence of law enforcement agents on the road, The Nation learnt.
Since it is obvious that people have to travel in the night, does the agency carry out preemptive measures? “We let the vehicle drivers know that it is better to be late than being the late. We advise to make sure their light, wipers and fire extinguisher are in good condition, if they have to travel at night.
“Also, the drivers should be a defensive and apply the common sense limit. While driving in the night, if the law stipulates 100 kilometers, you don’t have to use that in order to be able to control your vehicle in case of any eventuality,” he submitted.
