The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Traffic

  • Court declines to hear motorcyclists’ suit on Lagos traffic law

    COMMERCIAL motor cyclists popularly known as Okada riders have lost a fresh battle to challenge the validity and constitutionality of the Lagos State Road Traffic Law.

    A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has declined to entertain a suit filed by some of them challenging the constitutionality of the Lagos State Road Traffic Law.

    Justice M. B. Idris in his judgment upheld the submission of the Lagos State Attorney-General, Ade Ipaye that the suit constituted an abuse of court processing, a similar suit having been filed by the Applicants’ parent association before the High Court of Lagos State.

    Justice Idris agreed with Ipaye’s argument that the first Claimant in Suit No. ID/713M/12 at the High Court of Lagos State is the Incorporated Trustees of All Nigerian Autobike Commercial Owners and Workers Association, the Federal High Court found that all the Applicants before him were also members of the same Association.

    The court, therefore, held that, although both the Federal and State High Court concurrent jurisdiction to entertain matters of human rights enforcement.

    The trial judge held that the state court in this case was better placed to handle the matter.

    The judge said he arrived at this decision on the premise that the matter in the State High Court was the first one to be filed and that the matter bordered on the constitutionality of a law passed by the State House of Assembly.

    The judge condemned the practice of litigants who file processes in different courts in respect of the same matter.

    According to him, “We must prevent a situation where we allow litigants to obtain conflicting decisions from courts of coordinate jurisdiction in respect of the same subject. This matter is therefore transferred to the High Court of Lagos for proper adjudication.”

    It will be recalled that Justice Aishat Opesanwo of the High Court of Lagos State in a judgment delivered on December 13, 2012 upheld the validity and constitutionality of the Lagos State Road Traffic Law.

    Commenting on the decision, Ade Ipaye commended the decision as another progressive step.

    “We all have a duty to ensure that the processes of our Courts are not abused through forum-shopping litigation.

    “We advise the plaintiffs to partner with the State Government in our quest to provide affordable mass-transit system for all the citizens.”

  • Save the traffic situation at Effurun round-about

    It has been a heart aching experience driving through the Effurun round about on weekends. I had a first-hand experience lately and I think if nothing is done urgently to salvage the situation, its effect could be very colossal. On my way from Sapele on a Saturday, immediately after the last army check point when entering Effurun, we ran into a hold up. Under normal circumstances, from the army check point to the round about cannot take you more than five minutes, but without exaggeration, we spent approximately three hours to get to the round about. It was a sad experience with a heavy toll on social economic life.Besides, it poses a grave security threat as hoodlums can catch on the disorderly situation to commit crime.The simple reason for these happenings apart from the impatience of drivers and other road users is lack of obedience to simple traffic laws and regulations. Solving this problem will require the effort of the men of the FRSC and other law enforcement agencies.We would have gone through the road with less hitches if they were on ground to control vehicular movement and bring order. I am sincerely appealing to the FRSC Command covering Effurun to do something about the situation and save road users this unwarranted stress.

     

    Alexander Ighoro

    Effurun, Delta State

  • Traffic chaos fear as Jonathan visits

    Traffic chaos fear as Jonathan visits

    THE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday tabled two requests before President Goodluck Jonathan on his proposed trip to Lagos.

    According to the party, the requests are to ensure traffic sanity in the Centre of Excellence today as the ACN holds its convention.

    One – that the President takes a chopper from the Muritala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja to Eko Hotel & Suites on Victoria Island, where he is billed to attend a centenary event.

    The other request is for the President to postpone his visit in order not to create a traffic chaos. The ACN has scheduled his National Convention to hold at Onikan Stadium, one of the presidential routes leading to Victoria Island.

    Presidential routes are usually shut against public transportation anywhere the President visits.

    The ACN’s requests were contained in a letter written by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to Governor Babatunde Fashola on the President’s visit.

    In the letter, the ACN spokesman said the President’s visit usually creates heavy traffic and grounds movement.

    Combined with the convention, Mohammed noted that the traffic situation would be unimaginable, should the President travel by road.

    But presidential spokesman Dr. Reuben Abati accused the party of crying wolf where there was none.

    He said the President would only be transiting through Lagos, en route Ogun State.

    According to Mohammed, the convention was to get the party’s mandate to merge with other political parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) in line with the Electoral Act 2010.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he said, would be represented at the convention where the merger plan and the new party’s name would be ratified.

    Mohammed, who spoke while accrediting reporters for the coverage of the convention, explained the motive behind the party’s requests through the governor of Lagos state governor.

    He said: “We have been compelled to write a letter to the Lagos State governor asking him to please prevail on the President to reschedule his visit.

    “But if his visit must go on, he should use another means of transportation such as the helicopter so that the whole town is not locked up.

    “Anytime Mr President is coming to Lagos, our roads are closed, and traffic congestion is at its highest. The whole city is shut down for the entire day.

    “You can imagine when we’re expecting about 10,000 people from different parts of Nigeria to our convention, all heading for the same place. It’s going to be chaos.

    “So, we’re appealing to Mr President, through the Governor, to please reconsider his visit.

    “And if he must come, he should inflict the minimum pain and hardship on Nigerians.”

    Reacting yesterday, Abati said the Presidential visit would not in any way disrupt the ACN convention, wondering what informed the party’s letter to the governor.

    He alleged that the CAN spokesman was trying to re-order the itinerary of the President.

    Abati said in a statement: “We find it hard to believe that any patriotic and right-thinking Nigerian would have written the kind of publicly circulated letter reportedly sent to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola by the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in which he attempts to dictate President Jonathan’s itinerary, mode of transportation within Lagos, and motive, and even suggests that the President’s visit could have been designed to frustrate a planned Action Congress of Nigeria convention and merger with some other political parties.

    “The allegation is not only baseless, but another in the series of ‘wolf crying’ that has become the sole strategy and pre-occupation of the ACN. It is clearly a deliberate, further attempt to undermine, ridicule and debase the office of the President of the Federal Republic.

    “A courteous and simple discussion of the phantom potential conflict of programmes with appropriate officials of the Presidency would have sufficed to inform the ACN and its officials that President Jonathan is only transiting through Lagos tomorrow on his way to the commissioning of the WEMPCO Cold Roll Steel Plant in Ibafo, Ogun State.

    “In point of fact, President Jonathan’s visit tomorrow which was scheduled long before the ACN convention will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the convention as he will only touchdown at the airport, transit to Ibafo (miles away from the ACN convention venue) by chopper and return to the airport the same way for his flight back to Abuja.

    “It is certain that Governor Fashola was already aware of President Jonathan’s itinerary in Lagos tomorrow since in keeping with protocol, the Presidency always briefs state governments well ahead of time on all Presidential movements to their states.

    “Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s letter was therefore pointless and serves no purpose other than distasteful muck-raking.”

    Abati said the Presidency completely rejected the insinuation that the President’s visits to Lagos are always disruptive.

    The statement reads: “The paranoia displayed by the ACN in its plea to Governor Fashola concerning an imaginary plan to scuttle a political merger is beneath the politics of inclusiveness this administration has encouraged in its interaction with the state, as with all other states of the Federal Republic.

    “President Jonathan is President of the whole of Nigeria. It is strange and intolerable that any political party would as much as suggest that the President is not welcome in any state, city or local council in any part of the country at any time or date.”

  • New twist to traffic decongestion

    New twist to traffic decongestion

    The N30 billion World Bank and France Development Agency’s expansion project of the Ikorodu road is part of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority’s (LAMATA) plans to extend BRT service from Mile 12 to Ikorodu town. TAJUDEEN ADEBANJO writes.

    The Mile 12-Ikorodu road extension is not only to improve the Ikorodu Road network, but to extend the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service from Mile 12 to Ikorodu Town, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) Director of Public Transport, Olugbenga Dairo has said.

    The corridor covers a distance of about 13.5kilometres. It is designed to be a median-running (middle) BRT with bilateral bus station configurations linked to pedestrian bridges for access. The project on completion next year will extend BRT network to approximately 36km from Ikorodu to CMS.

    The population of people living in Ikorodu, Dairo said, is increasing daily and this has caused a high demand for public transport.

    Dairo said the existing public transport is inadequate, unsafe and operate in an informal sector.

    The low and middle class status of residents of Ikorodu and the deteriorating nature of the existing transport infrastructure, he said, necessitated the extension.

    He said the project on completion would improve mobility along the Ikorodu road corridor by providing high quality, low cost, environmentally friendly public transportation system.

    The project is characterised by dedicated bus lanes; three interchange terminals (at Mile 12, Agric Bus Stop and Ikorodu); modern bus depot/garaging facilities; fully enclosed accessible bus shelters with step-free; gap-free boarding facilities; pothole free traffic lanes with multiple u-turning opportunities and grade separated pedestrian crossing facilities.

    The running of the BRT, he said, will feature off board electronic ticketing system; use of high capacity modern bus fleet; high frequency bus operation; effective monitoring and enforcement of BRT regulations; safe and secure public transport system.

    Promising at least 20 minutes reduction in waiting time for passengers on queue, Dairo said: “Not only that, the project will create no less than 2,000 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs and 16 per cent reduction in Co2 and 50 per cent reduction in public transport related accidents.”

    He said there will be 15 bus stations – seven on either side with one at Mile 12.

    The station, he said, is designed to be integrated with pedestrian footbridges. “The bus stations will be located at Mile 12, Owode-Onirin; Irawo; Majidun; Ogolonto, Agric and Aruna. We have provisions for concrete side drains and extension of pipe and box culverts. We are going to construct new bridges at nine locations – single and double lane bridges. Likewise, there will be provision of lay-byes for other public transport services with U-turns at 12 locations (six per direction),” he stated.

    On how the immediate communities are buying into the idea, Dairo said the stakeholders have been properly briefed on the development the project would bring into the areas.

    “Do not forget that 265 buses would be deployed on the corridor which would transport no fewer than 160, 000 passengers daily. The surrounding communities would benefit more. That is why we are taking them seriously on this project. We have held series of stakeholders’ meetings and community forums to constructively engage the diverse stakeholders on the project and I can say we have been able to secure the stakeholders buy-in into the project,” he said.

    Residents of Ikorodu and environs who groan under the scorching sun due to the ongoing work are asking for a quick completion of the project.

  • FRSC urges Nigerians to adhere to traffic rules

    FRSC urges Nigerians to adhere to traffic rules

    The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has reiterated its call for total commitment of all Nigerians to reducing road accidents through strict adherence to traffic rules.

    Mr Nseobong Akpabio, the Lagos State Sector Commander of FRSC, made the call at the maiden biannual public enlightenment of the RS2.110, Ikotun Unit Command, held at SAMKOLL Garden, Ikotun, Lagos, yesterday.

    Akpabio said the irreparability of human lives made it compulsory for all Nigerians to take the issue of road safety serious and be ambassadors of the crusade.

    “Nobody can pay for a life, as no amount of compensation can bring back lives lost to road crashes.

    “If you have time to visit hospitals and mortuaries you will see what disobedience to traffic rules has made of many Nigerians.

    “Wastages on our roads call for total commitment of everyone whether in the southern, western, eastern or northern part of Nigeria. Road safety is a joint responsibility of all,” he said.

    Akpabio urged road users to desist from taking hard drugs, use of mobile phones while driving, neglect of seat belt and disobeying traffic signs.

    “The use of drugs, mobile phones, failure to use seat belt, among others, have become agents of death to many and have led a lot to permanent disability. Road does not even recognise chief executive,” he noted.

    He charged law-enforcement agents to be committed and firm in discharging their civic duties without favour.

    “In 2013, our goal is to reduce road crash significantly, and we will continue in the campaign to ensure safety of our stakeholders and make meaningful contributions to preserve lives of Nigerians,” he stressed.

    Iwuoha Chinwendu, the Unit Commander, Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos, called for attitudinal change by Nigerians in the usage of roads.

    Mr Adebayo Bello, the Chairman, Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), asked road users to be tolerant.

    Bello, who was represented by his deputy, Mr Kunle Olowopejo, said the LCDA would soon inaugurate a Road Safety Day to sensitise the public to the need for safety on the road.

     

  • 73.2km ring road to tame Lagos traffic, says Fed Govt

    73.2km ring road to tame Lagos traffic, says Fed Govt

    •Works Minister decries paltry budgetary allocation

    IF the Federal Government keeps its promise, the unending gridlock triggered by articulated vehicles on Lagos roads would soon end.

    Works Minister Mike Onolememen said the intractable traffic in the nation’s commercial and industrial hub is giving the government priority concern.

    According to him, plans have been concluded to build a 73.2-kilometre outer ring road to reduce the chaotic traffic situation being experienced within the Lagos metropolis.

    Onolememen made the revelation at a hearing entitled: “Urgent need to address the near-total collapse of federal roads across the country, a Bill for an Act to provide for the maintenance of public infrastructure, 2011 and for other matters connected therewith.” The forum was organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Works, chaired by Ogbuefi Ozomgachi.

    The minister said the ring road, when completed, will be dedicated mainly to trucks and fuel tankers originating from the ports and tank farms.

    He said the articulated vehicles would be compelled to ply the designated route to reduce gridlock on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

    The miniser also told the committee that the federal, Lagos and Ogun state governments are collaborating on the implementation of the project.

    Onolememen said the project has been divided into two sections; the first being the Tin Can Island-Igando-Lagos/Otta road interchange-Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, and the the Lekki-Ikorodu-Ijebu Ode on Sagamu/Benin Expressway as the second.

    The minister told the committee that N500 billion would be required between now and the year 2015 to fix road infrastructure, adding that his ministry has started the implementation of “Operation Safe Passage on Federal Highways.”

    Under the scheme, the failed sections on major roads across the country would be fixed to ameliorate the traffic headaches during the Yuletide.

    He decried the budgetary allocation of N100 billion for the development of roads.

    The minister said: “The average budget of about N100 billion for road development is grossly inadequate for the nation’s 35,000-kilometre federal road network and for a country that budgets N300 billion and N150 billion for its Central Bank and deposit insurance corporation respectively.

    “The finance of road projects has been through fluctuating budgetary provisions which have proved inadequate to fund the projects.

    “For example, the amount being owed on Interim Certificate for the Lagos-Otta highway is about N1.74 billion, yet only N742.5 million was provided in the 2012 Appropriation Act.”

    He attributed the inadequate provision of funds to delay and abandonment of projects across the country.

    Onolememen said: “From past experience, budget provisions are not fully released. In 2011, out of a budgetary provision of N130 billion for highway projects, only N88.7 billion was released with a shortfall of N41.3billion.

    “And in 2012, out the total budgetary provision of N143 billion, only N110 billion was released. The ministry is therefore recommending alternative ways of funding highway infrastructure by the Federal Government.”

    In his earlier remarks, House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, who was represented by Minority Whip Samson Osagie, described as “horrendous” the deplorable state of roads in the country, adding that there is an urgent need to repair them.

    Ozomgbachi noted: “The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) statistics for accidents in the first half of 2012 puts the figure at 1,936 fatalities and substantial part of it attributable to the poor state of our roads.

    “The truth must be told, the condition of our roads is alarming and statistics attest to that and between 1999 till date about N4.414 trillion has been appropriated to the road sector.

    “And yet out of about 34,400-kilometre of Federal Road network only about 35 per cent is paved and substantial percentage of it in varying degree of distress and or pot- holes ridden.”

    “In a country of about 160 million people with an approximate land area of 910,768 square kilometer in which over 90 per cent of the passengers and freight movement are done by road due to almost non-functional water-ways and rail-based transportation, the situation assumes even a status of national emergency.”

     

    “The debilitating effects on national economy and loss of lives and properties arising from road accidents and armed banditry arising from the poor state of our road network evokes a sense of national outrage and mourning.

     

  • Someday, traffic offences will attract death penalty

    Someday, traffic offences will attract death penalty

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) was reported in the Wednesday edition of The Punch to have submitted a proposal on constitutional amendment to the National Assembly. One of the striking recommendations the northern political group made, the paper said, was capital punishment for those found guilty of corruption. This startling suggestion is bound to attract more than a cursory attention from the public, especially against the backdrop of the Edo State governor’s insistence on executing two state convicts on death row. The convicts, Messrs Daniel Nsofor and Osayinwinde Agbomien, were condemned to death many years back. Their sentences have now been confirmed by the Supreme Court.

    It is unlikely the ACF proposal was inspired by Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s resolve, but the northern group probably sustains its argument with the same philosophy that undergirds the Edo approach to crime fighting. Hear Oshiomhole’s argument: “I am convinced that those people (the two convicts) need to die. In the interest of society they need to die under the law. The rule of law is different from resolutions by some NGOs and nations are not governed by NGO resolutions. We must have a balanced view of human rights in which the rights, not only of the man they killed but the right of his relations, and much more importantly, to send a clear message to would-be murderers, that when you kill a human being and you are caught, you are likely to die. If you don’t want to die, then abstain from killing. If criminals abstain from killing, fewer people would be killed by robbers and other murderers and that is the truth.”

    Oshiomhole’s rationalisation is not too different from that of the ACF. Hear the northern political group: “The law classifies crimes according to the severity of their consequences both on the individual victim, the community or the country. If crime holds a high potential to gravely harm or kill its victim, the more severe the punishment, which was designed to punish and deter offenders. This is to say that punishment must always fit offences. One crime that has proved capable of gravely harming or killing its victim, Nigeria, is corruption. Sadly, our laws have not recognised corruption for what it is. ACF recommends that corruption be recognised as a capital offence and made to carry capital punishment.”

    Neither the governor nor the ACF is right about the capacity of the death penalty to deter capital crimes. There is no country where capital crimes have inverse relationship with capital punishment. In fact, even in the United States, which still retains capital punishment in the statutes of a few states, states with capital punishment have higher incidence of capital crimes than states without the death penalty. Both Oshiomhole and the ACF should avail themselves of the numerous studies on the topic rather than rely on general impressions and suppositions. They must recognise from available statistics that robbery rate has not declined in Nigeria since the Gen Yakubu Gowon administration promulgated a decree to make robbery punishable by death. Robbery has in fact increased. And in spite of extra-judicial killings by policemen, robbers have not become less vicious or less fecund.

    It is disquieting that we have found ourselves in the position of recommending the death penalty for certain categories of corruption instead of examining scientific ways of curbing the malaise. Would we not someday get the brainwave to extend this extreme measure to traffic offences? Life has been made very cheap by both lawbreakers and security agencies; we should not now make it even more worthless by extending capital punishment to sundry crimes, further vitiating the little claim we have left to decency and civilization, and reducing ourselves, like the lynch mob, to the bestial level robbers would like us to sink.

  • Ensuring compliance with Lagos Traffic Law

    Ensuring compliance with Lagos Traffic Law

    SIR: The decision of the Lagos State government to ban the operation of commercial motorcyclists on major roads in the state has generated a lot of misgivings. The restrictions of okada on the routes and the worsening fuel scarcity have made many Lagosians stranded as they were forced to trek to their destinations.

    No doubt, every attempt to sanitize and restore order to the chaotic roads should be embraced, especially, going by the traffic situation in Lagos. That is what any responsible government should do.

    But in doing this, the necessary environment should be put in place to ensure that the introduction of the new law is not an attempt at paying Peter to rob Paul.

    Presently, the available modes of transportation infrastructure are inadequate for a city of about 20 million people. The existing road is seriously under pressure as the Bus Rapid Transit services passengers often cramped onto the buses while many would-be commuters are always held-down in long queues awaiting the BRT buses for the next turn that may never come.

    The Keke-NAPEP is just a bigger okada and does not offer much.It has only succeeded in increasing the average cost of transportation and traffic congestions within the city. They are equally operated by the same people of the same brains behind the operation of okadas, in terms of traffic law compliance. Hence, in the absence of sufficient cars and buses, commercial motorcycles remain the most practical and easily accessible means of transportation which a large percentage of the populace rely on.

    Banning them at the moment portends grave social and psychological consequences. As a way forward, there should be concerted efforts by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Lagos State Traffic Management Agency and the Nigeria Police to ensure high compliance with traffic regulations. Over the years, what have bred lawlessness in Nigeria are simply impunity and endemic official corruption and bribery. Some law enforcement agents are themselves law-brakers and clogs in the wheel of sanity. They flout the law of the land with impunity. LASTMA officials are not an exception and so,there is the dire need for a shake-up in LASTMA.

    The role of media and public enlightenment should be fully engaged in conjunction with the commercial motorcyclist unions and relevant stakeholders to bring about the necessary sensitization. The government should play its part by putting in place, the necessary infrastructure – good roads, clear street markings, functional traffic lights, road signs, safety and emergency measures as well as educational and instructional materials prepared in English and major Nigerian languages –to make the people respecters of law not law breakers.

     

    • Adewale Kupoluyi,

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

  • Army officers pledge to obey, enforce new Lagos traffic law

    The General Officer Commanding the 81 Division of the Nigeria Army in Lagos, Major General Kenneth Minimah, yesterday pledged that the Military will not only conform but also champion enforcement of obedience to the law.

    He spoke at an interactive session between Lagos state governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola and senior Army officers as well as heads of army formations in Lagos on the new road traffic law at the 81 Division Auditorium, Onikan.

    Minimah said there is no reason why the new Traffic Law should not work.

    He asserted that the military formations will go beyond just obeying the law but take part in enforcing it since it is a legitimate law of the state that has passed through the necessary processes before becoming a law.

    Fashola said everyone must realise roads are shared assets citing the latest accident on the Shagamu Benin Expressway where 33 people were reportedly drowned when their vehicle plunged into a river.

    He said he has refused to use the siren because it is part of his job to move traffic and using it will mean escaping and leaving the tax payers who employed him to bail themselves out.

    He also spoke on his experience in terms of traffic infractions with some members of the Armed Forces.

    Those examples, he said, did not typify who the members of the Armed Forces are truly but just a case of “a bad event on a bad day”.

    He said in several democracies, the Military have been responsible for fashioning democracy citing the example of George Washington who was formerly a soldier before becoming an elected President.

    On commercial motorcycles, Fashola said several people have lost their lives, limbs, arms or become maimed through the reckless activities of the operators.

    He said the new traffic law has prescribed that the motorcycles cannot ply the major highways like Lagos- Badagry Expressway, Third Mainland bridge, Ozumba Mbadiwe road and selected roads and bridges.

  • Kwara, Niger, others to replicate Lagos traffic management

    The governments of Kwara, Niger, Edo, Oyo and some other states are set to establish traffic law enforcement agencies to be fashioned after the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), it was learnt.

    The Executive Chairman of LASTMA, Mr .Young Arebame, said the states are seeking assistance from the Lagos State Government to establish the traffic agency.

    He told our reporter that ’’we have begun action to replicate LASTMA in those states as requested by the governments. We have put structures in place for the take-off of traffic law enforcement agencies.”

    According to him, the development underscored the value of traffic management in an environment and the success of the Lagos State Government initiative in traffic management to enhance the economic development of the state.

    He said the economy of the state depended on free flow of traffic.

    Arebame said: “Eighty per cent of inhabitants of any city make use of highways in moving goods. Where government fails to ensure this, it affects the economy.

    ‘’If goods are produced by manufacturers and they cannot move them to market in time, such goods will lose value. Traffic congestion leads to loss of man hours and constitutes health hazards to road users. This is why governments are proactive in tackling traffic problems.

    ‘’With the establishment of the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) in Lagos, you can travel from Ikorodu to CMS on Lagos Island within 25 minutes. Unlike before when a commuter could spend the whole day on the road.

    ‘’If Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had not established LASTMA that is sustained by Governor Babatunde Fashola, Lagos would have been groaning under traffic jam and the economy of the state would have suffered. That is to say the nation’s economy will be affected because Lagos is the nerve centre of the nation ‘s economy.”

    He said he is delighted that state governments are complementing each other in terms of development, adding, “this is what our leaders should be doing, instead of sabotaging themselves.”

    The LASTMA boss said: ’’It is on record that some politicians established a law enforcement agency called the Federal Road Management Agency (FERMA), with the intent of rivalling LASTMA on Lagos roads. The plan didn’t work. FERMA has become history.

    “We are not saying everybody in LASTMA is an angel. The founding fathers knew there would be bad eggs among the officials. That was why rules and guidelines were put in place, which are made known to them during the training. Officials who breach the rules are sanctioned.

    ‘’For the past two or three years, there has been a programme tagged: ‘The new face of LASTMA’, through which they undergo training and retraining on duty performance, human relations ,traffic rule enforcement and public relations. These trainings have impacted on the service delivery of our officials.’’