The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

  • Deaths averted as petrol tanker, truck collide on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    The Ogun State Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said yesterday that loss of lives was averted after a tanker loaded with petrol collided with a truck on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    The Corps’ Route Commander, Florence Okpe, said in Ota, Ogun State that the accident which occurred at about 2:51a.m, involved four persons with two injured and no death recorded.

    She said: “A tanker with registration number LND-437 XC conveying PMS collided with a truck marked LRN-981 ZA around the Redeemed Christian Church of God’s youth centre gate, Mowe, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, blocking the entire carriageway into Lagos.

    “The tanker had spilled its contents on the expressway and both trucks blocked the entire access road.

    “The RCCG and Sagamu fire services were contacted, as standard practice, before transloading and removal of the fuel tanker were embarked upon.

    “Also, Julius Berger Plc was contacted to open the blocked section around the area, where they are currently rehabilitating, to allow vehicles have access as the gridlock has spread towards Kara near Sagamu,” she said.

     

     

  • Policewoman allegedly assaults passengers, conductor

    There was pandemonium last Thursday at Kara on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as a mobile policewoman (MOPOL) allegedly fired teargas canister inside a commercial bus because she was asked to pay N300 fare.

    The woman, whose picture was taken on the scene and given to our correspondent by one of the passengers, had reportedly boarded the bus from Berger in Lagos en route to Mowe in Ogun State.

    It was gathered that the 14-seater bus carrying children aged between two and seven, and adults, began the journey from the bus park, but the cop refused to pay fare.

    “The conductor demanded N300 fare from her, but the woman snapped that she was an officer and would not pay. The conductor told the woman that it was too early for him to incur such a loss. That he would have given her a free ride if it were in the evening.

    “An argument ensued and passengers supported the conductor that the policewoman should pay her fare. She was asked to alight if she didn’t want to pay. When the bus got to Kara, the woman shouted that she would deal with the conductor and his driver.

    “Suddenly she fired teargas canister inside the bus and this caused commotion. People scampered for safety. Others jumped off the bus,” a passenger told our correspondent.

    It was gathered that passersby and passengers dispossessed the policewoman of the teargas canister, which was later handed over to an Inspector-General of Police (IG) X-Squad team from Alagbon that was driving pass.

    The team, headed by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Bulus Bitrus, was said to have taken the conductor, driver and the policewoman to a police station near Kara (Warewa) where a complaint was lodged.

    Police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said no report was made at the station about a policewoman teargassing passengers, adding that he was told the issue was resolved and those arrested released.

  • The tragedy of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    For four days within a week the Lagos-Ibadan expressway was for want of better description under a virtual lockdown or a siege thus paralyzing movement and causing unimaginable hardship and pain to the traveling public. People spent over ten hours on the road till midnight of April 2 and early morning of April 3.  A reoccurrence was witnessed the night of April 6 till the morning of April 7.Repeating the same thing and expecting different results is the hallmark of madness. If innocent people were not the victims of government’s indifference, it would probably just pass as the proverbial example of Nigerians being inured to suffering, humiliation and poor governance but in this case many ordinary Nigerians just wanting to be allowed to live were involved. A 70-year old year professor friend of mine on her way to the United Kingdom was caught in this horror and she spent 10 hours in the heat of the traffic snarl not knowing if she would come out of it alive. After 10 hours anybody, not to talk about a 70-year old lady, would be pressed to go to the toilet. This is just the case that I know but there must have been thousands of unreported cases. Of course the poor lady missed her flight and had to stay in Lagos for extra two days to find a seat on another scheduled flight after paying huge financial penalties for missing her flight. It is only in Nigeria where citizens are subjected to this kind of double jeopardy without anybody or institutions being held accountable.

    There are two construction companies working on this 127.6 kilometre road which has been on the drawing board since 1993. From the Lagos end we have Julius Berger a Nigerian – German company and a subsidiary of Bilfinger und Berger based in Wiesbaden. This is a company with tremendous reputation of efficiency and reliability. This company was largely responsible for building Abuja as well as the modernization of Lagos involving the construction of all the flyovers among many major engineering landmarks in Nigeria. From the Ibadan end is a Nigerian-Israeli company, Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC) which has also been handling many construction businesses in Nigeria. The two companies were brought in after the failure of the Wale Babalakin-sponsored company Bi-Courtney limited which was given the go ahead to build the road as a private enterprise by the Obasanjo regime.  Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the minister of finance under Obasanjo had promised that since we exited from the debt overhang of the Paris and London clubs of external creditors after paying in the year 2000, a whopping $12 billion, the money being previously used to service the debts will be devoted to infrastructural renewal. Nothing like that happened; rather we saw the Lagos-Ibadan expressway privatized into the hands of Bi- Courtney. The award was further confirmed by the Goodluck Jonathan regime.

    The question many of us asked then was why the major road artery in Nigeria connecting the main ports with the hinterland became the object of the experiment of the western capitalist inspired privatization mania of the PDP governments from 1999 to 2015. Even in the latter years of the Babangida government particularly under Major General Abdulkarim Adisa as minister of works, plans were afoot to reconstruct the road but all came to naught because of the political and economic instability which marked the last seven years of the military regime from 1992 to 1999.

    Until President Muhammadu Buhari came in 2015, the expressway seemed jinxed with the spirit of abandonment.  It was with great expectations that most people welcomed the appointment of Babatunde Raji Fashola as minister in charge of works, housing and power. His reputation as a modernizing governor predated him to the ministry. He did not initially disappoint his admirers. He took on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway with his usual aplomb. But his enthusiasm and drive were halted when Bukola Saraki as president of the senate stood in his way.

    To curry favour of some powerful interests, Bukola Saraki began to suggest that the Southwest was not the only zone in the country and that whatever resources that were available for the Lagos-Ibadan expressway would have to be spread to all the six zones of the country. Thus the budgets for this road for the four years of the Buhari government were slashed and shared to other zones sometimes for frivolous projects such as boreholes and senators’ corrupt constituency projects .What Saraki forgot to remember was that the Lagos-Ibadan road extended to his fiefdom in his much-abused and humiliated Ilorin.  The reality of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is that it connects the North to the coast and also the ports of Lagos with the oil producing zones of the South-south and the Southeast. Not only that, the zone where the road traverses contributes 70% of the  customs and excise revenues of the country as well as 60% of the Value Added Tax (VAT). Building the road therefore was of great and significant economic importance to the entire country. This simple logic could not be assimilated by those in the senate whose understanding of government did not go beyond buccaneering self-aggrandizement. Now chicken has come home to roost and innocent people are dying and suffering at the hands of the construction companies particularly Julius Berger.

    For some strange reasons, Julius Berger is performing below expectations in its Lagos half of the road. The story in the past was usually about being owed money for job done. Yet, we were told that money had been secured for this project. Is someone deceiving the public and is Julius Berger still being owed money for previous work on this road? I travel on this road weekly and I compare the work being done by Julius Berger with that of RCC and Julius Berger is surprisingly lagging behind. The equipment and men deployed shows the unserious approach of Julius Berger. There are fewer men and equipment deployed by Julius Berger on the vital Lagos section thus slowing the pace of work and prolonging the suffering of the unfortunate Nigerian people.  Our people in the best of times are also unruly and impatient thus compounding and contributing to the chaos on the road. When sections are blocked there is no intelligent provision for alternative routes. This does not happen on the RCC section. The inference one can draw is that Julius Berger is not interested in the job at hand and is waiting for the riot act to be read to it before being fired. It could also be due to a sense of ennui and tiredness of the corrupt Nigerian bureaucracy and government.

    Whatever the case may be, President Muhammadu Buhari had better send Fashola or his minister of state to visit the expressway and other vital projects of his ministry. As I have said in this column several times, Buhari does not have the luxury of time to waste talking when what is needed is action. He is not going to run again but he is running against his place in the history of this country. He must remove all impediments and obstacles for his earning an enviable place in the history of this much abused and misgoverned country. All governments at the state and federal levels must realise that they are not just in government and authority they are there to ameliorate the suffering of our helpless and hapless people who have no recourse to anybody but God even though divine justice grinds very slowly. Our people don’t demand much than to be left alone to eke out their miserable existence. In this regard, free and passable highways are not asking for the moon but they are the rights of the citizens of this country. In short government is not just about those in government and state houses but about ordinary people too.

  • Back on hell’s highway

    If the daily anguish of motoristsplying the Lagos-Ibadan expressway has not reached heaven by now, put it to the growing irritation at the celestial realm with Nigerians penchant to bombard its gates with sundry, mundane issues that modern civilization has long taken for granted. The other day on my Facebook page, I tried a light joke of my terrible experience on Sunday morning of how a journey between Arepo and Magboro – along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway – a distance of less than three kilometres took the whole of four hours to make. A friend in his reaction advised I relocate; another thought I should have left my residence much earlier to beat the inevitable gridlock; yet another concluded that I most likely forgot to pray to stave off the principalities and the powers that seems to have taken residence on that road.

    Of course, just when you think you have seen enough in the hell corridor called the Lagos–Ibadan highway to remind you of Dante’s Hell, an entirely new experience makes you wonder whether the great Lucifer hasn’t finally moved its doomed habitation to Nigeria’s famed “Bible Belt”. Today, that 127.6-kilometre highway, perhaps the busiest in the country if not the entire continent, not only mirrors the dysfunction that Nigeria is, but has become everything a vital national artery should not be.

    On my way to the office a week ago, a tanker said to be laden with Automotive Gas Oil reportedly lost control and in the process spilled its contents somewhere not too far from the popular Long Bridge in the early hours of the morning. With elements of security on holiday and rescue infrastructure nowhere in sight, it was the moment for the devil to take over. And yes he did for nearly 18 hours that would cost the nation millions in man-hours aside the unimaginable public health costs. In my case, I got home very well past midnight – for a journey that would ordinarily take 30 minutes.

    The truth of course is that last Monday’s accident, like the other experience on Sunday, is only one among many of the daily experience of gridlock that has become the lot of the motorists on that corridor. Only yesterday, three persons were reported to have been killed in an accident involving a tipper loaded with granite and a Dangote truck at the Ogere, Ogun State end of the expressway. For those of us living on that corridor, like the millions of commuters on that road, we have probably done little else than hope and pray for divine intervention – even as I sometimes left in wonder if those fruitless hours spent on prayer rain couldn’t have been better deployed in organizing to get the contractors and the federal government to either move forward the completion date from 2021 or at least put measures in place to relieve the daily sufferings experienced on that road.

    For now, the agony endures.

    The unfortunate part of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway story is that nothing of the present suffering is inevitable.Rather, it reflects not only the absentee states of our institutions but alsothe systematic collapse of the norms of the orderly society – the combination of which is the reign of anarchy currently unleashed on the country.

    I have heard it said – not once or twice – that the construction giant –Julius Berger – will not dare to do to citizens of its home country, Germany. I certainly would agree that the laws of their home country wouldn’t allow them were the circumstances to be the same. In fact, such afflictions would readily pass foran assault on the dignity of the people on whose behalf they are called upon to render a service. However, while the laws avail to supply the institutional safeguard, the greater consideration wouldn’t be so much for the law but the imperative of business and the awareness of what corporate citizenship and responsibility entails. That is what distinguishes the civilised world from the rest; ability to put the interest of citizens first at all times.

    What do we have here?

    A federal government which aside being impervious to the grind, continues to feign indifference to the potion of slow death dailyadministered on its own people. A federal government so utterly oblivious to the requirements of the basic infrastructures of safety and rescue on which modern transportation are anchored? Imagine aroad safety institution that is only a little more than an agency for the issuances of drivers’ licenses in this day and age! Who even care about public health issues resultant from the problem when bigger issues beg for attention? What about its responsibility to the contractors given what is known to be its serial failures to meet up with its obligations to them?

    Ours truly isn’t just unusual country; it is probably the only one I know where citizens tolerance limits are infinitely elastic!

    Could things have been different? To the extent the problem is fairly easy to isolate, the answer is yes. Clearly, the first layer of the problem is law enforcement. At the moment, there are simply too many vehicles on the road that ought to have been confined to the scrapyard. Lagos with its Vehicle Inspection Service has proven a clear leader in charting the course of ensuring that vehicles on the road are roadworthy. Time to tighten the screws across the board. Ridding the highways of vehicles that are not roadworthy should henceforth be of utmost priority.

    Now, it remains a wonder to see how things quickly slip out of joint when accidents happen considering the plethora of officials manning the highways. All too often, I have seen FRSC officials act more like spectators even whendire emergencies are indicated. Many, in some cases, are actually complicit in the making of some of the bedlam. It should be possible for officials to be held to account when ugly situations arise. Simply put, something drastic has to be done about the penchant by undisciplined motorists to drive against traffic. That lack of will to punish offenders is probably responsible for 90 percent of the problem that has turned the corridor into the nightmare that it has become. I think it is about time FRSC shows that it can truly bite by enforcing that law.

    Here is my appeal to Julius Berger; surely you can do something – even if our government wouldn’t lift a finger to help us. Let no one hide behind some technical nonsense to suggest that nothing can be done. Julius Berger knows that a lot can be done. The problem is that the company hasn’t even begun the finding. Now is the time.

  • Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: exercise patience, FRSC urges motorists

    The Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission ( FRSC ) in Ogun, Clement Oladele, on Thursday, advised motorists plying Lagos -Ibadan Expressway to exercise patience and drive cautiously, especially within construction areas.

    Oladele disclosed this in a statement signed by the FRSC Public Education Officer in the state, Florence Okpe, and made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abeokuta.

    The sector commander warned motorists to avoid driving against traffic, as violators were liable to be prosecuted.

    He noted that the FRSC was working in concert with the construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC, on introducing additional measures to cushion the hardship motorists were facing as a result of the construction efforts.

    Oladele said that the FRSC had been encouraging the construction company to speed up rehabilitation work and also open up areas that had been fairly completed for public use.

    Read Also: FRSC confirms two dead in Bauchi tanker explosion

    “Motorists are enjoined to cooperate with the FRSC and sister traffic agencies in ensuring free flow of traffic while driving along the road corridor and other corridors in the country.

    “The expressway has witnessed sporadic gridlocks this week due to incessant infractions occasioned by frequent breakdown of majorly articulated vehicles, which is compounded by the ongoing rehabilitation of the corridor.

    ” This has narrowed the lanes available on the expressway, especially between Magboro /Ibafo axis to the Mowe sections of the road.

    “Commuter activities along the corridor have also affected motorisation, coupled with traffic indiscipline by some reckless drivers that take advantage of gridlocks to attempt driving against traffic.

    “The FRSC wishes to inform the motoring public that the past few days have been characterised with infractions that distorted the free flow of traffic,” he said.

    Oladele said that the command would continue to ensure free flow of traffic on the expressway.

  • Bedlam on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    Motorists on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway have been expressing their frustrations following the traffic that has made travelling in and out of the Centre of Excellence hectic for almost 24 hours.

    The traffic, which was triggered by a fuel-leaking tanker at the Kara area of Ibafo, Ogun State, began in the early hours of Tuesday. The impediment was cleared around 3pm yesterday.

    It, however, brought out the ‘madness’ out of commuters, especially, commercial bus drivers, who, out of impatience, abandoned their lanes to drive against on-coming vehicles, and in the process, locked down the dual carriage highway.

    Those trapped for hours in the traffic snarl made frantic efforts to get updates to plan their trips.

    Many, who work in Lagos but living in communities on the highway corridor, spent hours returning home as trips that could have taken their minutes, took several hours.

    Some were simply advised not to venture returning home, or urged to take alternative routes.

    Those who called on Lagos Radio Traffic, expressed frustrations, blaming Messrs. Julius Berger, the contractor hired by the Federal Government to fix the Sagamu Interchange – Lagos end of the highway.

    Read also: Reimagining the chaotic splendour of Lagos traffic

    They accused the firm of being insensitive to the plights of motorists by not deploying high-capacity towing vehicles to take broken down trucks off the road.

    According to them, such pains have not been experienced on the Ibadan-Sagamu Interchange end of the highway, given to Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) to handle.

    A caller narrated how he spent 10 hours from Ikeja, to Arepo, a Lagos suburb in Ogun State. The trip, according to him, takes about 20 minutes.

    Those, who have scheduled morning flights and other appointments, were helpless as they were advised to take alternative routes.

  • Motorists, commuters lament gridlocks on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    Motorists and commuters plying Lagos Ibadan Expressway have lamented over the constant gridlocks that most times locked down the road.

    Those heading out of Lagos spend several hours in the snarling traffic from the Long Bridge to Magboro bus stop, following the narrowing of the road due to the ongoing construction.

    Also, the incessant breakdown of vehicles on the narrowed road prevents smooth-driving, causing heavy traffic for hours on the road.

    The motorists and commuters, however, urged the Ogun State government to emulate Lagos State in setting up a rescue plan to remove vehicles on the road.

    The state law enforcement agents were also urged to be strict in arresting drivers fond of driving against traffic whenever there is a gridlock on the road.

    A Magboro resident, who works on Lagos Island, Mrs. Yemisi Ayeni, told The Nation that it is now a regular occurrence to be held up in a gridlock when returning from work in the evenings.

    “I don’t think the Ogun State government knows the importance of the state’s proximity to Lagos State because if they do, they should learn from them in terms of rescue efforts.

    Read also: Traffic diversion on Lagos-Ibadan expressway begins today

    “Most times, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is overwhelmed by the gridlock and this is where the Ogun State government needs to assist in reducing the long hours commuters spend on the road each day. We know that construction is ongoing, but the slow pace of work by the contractors has made life difficult for people plying the area, especially when coming back from work in the evenings,” she lamented.

    A commercial driver, Akeem Jimoh, however, blamed the regular gridlock on indiscipline by commuters, who are fond of taking “one-way”.

    “I think with patience, the gridlock will ease but most drivers plying the road are just not patient enough and most times, drive against traffic. Long hours are spent on the road every day, but I have made up my mind not to drive against traffic, regardless of the gridlock.

    “Also, the contractors, Julius Berger should also hasten up the construction on the road to allow for smooth passage for those heading out of Lagos,” he said.

  • Yuletide: FG opens Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu road to traffic

    Ahead of the Yuletide and to ensure smooth travelling experience for motorists, the Federal Government on Tuesday opened the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to traffic.

    The government also inspected the progress of repair works on the Ikorodu/Sagamu road.

    Opening the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mr Adedamola Kuti, said the highway was “special and very dear to the Federal Government’’.

    He explained that it was important because the road began from Apapa ports and terminates in the northern part of the country.

    Kuti added that it took traffic from the 36 states of the federation, hence, the speedy completion of repairs around the construction zones and opening the highway to traffic.

    “A lot of people are coming out of Lagos going home for the celebration and some are also coming in from all the states of the federation into Lagos.

    “What we are doing today is to open up all the construction areas and open up the entire highway to traffic for the period of the season, we will resume our work in January,’’ he said.

    He said the ministry was going to use the dry season to speed up reconstruction of the highway, adding that all hands were on deck with the contractors working tirelessly to achieve speedy completion.

    Kuti said that the section one of the project which spans from Ojota in Lagos State to the Sagamu Interchange was awarded at an initial cost of N70 billion but the sum was reviewed upward to N134 billion after additional works were added to the project.

    He said that increase in the volume of work on the site meant an extension of completion time for the project.

    “For now we are opening up this road for the use of the motoring public and I want to also seize this opportunity to, on behalf of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, to appeal to motorists and commuters using this road to drive safely with caution, observe all traffic rules and regulations, including speed.

    “On our on part, in the meantime, we are handing over to the Federal Roads Safety (FRSC) so that they take control of traffic on the road,’’ he said.

    The Sector Commander of the FRSC, Ogun State, Mr Clement Oladele, said that the FRSC were going to be on 24 hours surveillance of the highway to prevent gridlock and accidents.

    He said that in 2017 the Lagos to Ogun end of the highway recorded 1.8 million travellers and about two million travellers had used the highway from January to date.

    He said that a special operations unit had been set up by the FRSC for the Yuletide to manage traffic on the highway from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15 in 2019.

    He explained that 210 deaths due to road crashes were recorded on the Ogun side of the highway in 2017 but efforts were on to stop road crashes across the federation.

    “We are estimating that minimum of 350,000 vehicles will move on this road this season.

    “I want to assure the motoring public that FRSC is here, we have commenced 24 hours operations since Dec. 1, just to ensure people travel in safety with minimal discomfort,’’ he said.

    NAN reports that after the highway was opened, road users who spoke to journalists expressed joy and thanked the Federal Government for being sensitive to the plight of road users.

    They said that the opening would reduce stress caused by gridlock and accidents on the highway.

    The controller inspected the 34 kilometers Ikorodu Sagamu Road where construction was going on at various sections.

    Kuti said the highway was important because it was linking the Ikorodu Division in Lagos to the Sagamu Division in Ogun and took as well as dispersed huge traffic from the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

    “The project is actually starting from Lagos and terminating in Sagamu and the method the contractor is adopting is to work at the critical sections and then later we link them up,’’ he said.

    He said various construction methods were being deployed on the road taking into cognisance the traffic demand of each section.

    He added that government was passionate about completing repairs of the highways which serves as alternative route to the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

  • Ogun to divert traffic on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun State yesterday announced a temporary traffic diversion on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway from Sunday.

    FRSC Sector Commander Clement Oladele said the diversion is as a result of the ongoing construction of pedestrian bridge around Ibafo Bus Stop.

    Oladele said: “The diversion will enable the construction company building the pedestrian bridge, awarded by the Ogun Government, to erect beams of the pedestrian bridge.

    “Motorists have to bear with the inconveniences of the temporary diversion and cooperate with the FRSC patrol team to be assisted by sister traffic agencies.

    “They will be strategically deployed to control the diverted traffic on the highway.

    “Drivers are accordingly advised to observe lane discipline and drive cautiously, while obeying traffic rules and regulations around the diversion area and on all other road corridors.

    “Motorists observing traffic emergencies can contact the FRSC toll free number 122

  • FRSC advises motorists on traffic diversion on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun, on Thursday announced a temporary traffic diversion on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway from Sunday, Aug. 26.

    Mr Clement Oladele, the FRSC Sector Commander in Ogun, said that the diversion was sequel to the ongoing construction of pedestrian bridge around Ibafo Bus Stop.

    Oladele said: “The diversion will enable the construction company building the pedestrian bridge, awarded by the Ogun Government, to erect beams of the pedestrian bridge.

    “Motorists have to bear with the inconveniences of the temporary diversion and cooperate with the FRSC patrol team to be assisted by sister traffic agencies.

    “They will be strategically deployed to control the diverted traffic on the highway.

    “Drivers are accordingly advised to observe lane discipline and drive cautiously, while obeying traffic rules and regulations around the diversion area and on all other road corridors.

    “Motorists observing traffic emergencies can contact the FRSC toll free number 122.” (NAN)