The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Traffic

  • Ambode worried about traffic gridlock , robberies

    Ambode worried about traffic gridlock , robberies

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday released the policy direction of his administration for the next three and half years and appealed for the support and cooperation of all Lagosians in moving the state forward.

    The Governor who spoke at the inaugural retreat organised by the State Government for Commissioners, Special Advisers and body of Permanent Secretaries in the state, expressed concern over the persistent traffic gridlock in the metropolis, and the increase in spate of robberies.

    In the interim, he said he has directed the fixing of all potholes to ease vehicular movement, while security agencies have been mandated to enforce the ban on commercial motorcycle operators popularly called Okada riders on highways.

    According to him, aside the risks of accidents, commercial motorcycles  can also be a security threat to the people.

    Governor Ambode, who said the government is also working hard to restrict street hawking, urged the people to stop patronising them, so as to discourage street traders from the highways.

    “We have already hit the ground running. I’m deeply concerned about the issues that Lagosians are sending back to me and the issues range from security issues, traffic gridlock and the environment itself. But again just as we are looking at the immediate solutions to them, there are medium term solutions that Lagosians will see in the next few weeks that we will roll out.”

    “We have declared zero tolerance on potholes and we are deploying more men to ensure free flow of traffic. As we are now in the ‘Ember’ months, I just want to appeal to Lagosians to be more vigilant, and cooperate with us in all the measures we will be carrying out,” Governor Ambode said.

  • Lagos to buy helicopters to battle crime, traffic

    Lagos to buy helicopters to battle crime, traffic

    •220 roads repaired in four months

    The Lagos State government will buy three helicopters next month to tackle crimes and monitor traffic, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said.

    Ambode, who was a guest on Soni Irabor Live (SIL) on Inspiration FM, said he was concerned about the robberies in the state.

    He said the government would boost the operations of the marine police and Navy on the waterways.

    The governor said at least 220 roads were rehabilitated in the last four months.

    He pleaded with Lagosians to support him to take Lagos to develop the state further.

    The governor said: “We are in this together. It is your government; you put me there; I’m your servant and I’m ready for criticism.

    “I’m listening and I believe strongly that you have a say in this government because it is an inclusive government. No matter where you come from, no matter your creed or colour, this is your government.

    “I appeal that Lagosians should join hands with me; tolerate whatever it is that you are seeing and make sure that you also carry out your civic obligations.

    “Pay your taxes because it is the only way that Lagos can grow and you know, the bottom line is this, we need to work together to achieve a safer Lagos; a cleaner Lagos; and a more prosperous Lagos and that is what we are going to do,” he said.

    The governor assured the people that a flyover bridge would soon be built at the Ajah Roundabout, and that the Lagos State Public Works Corporation had been mandated to fix potholes in the state.

    Ambode clarified his directive to officials of the State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), saying the not-to-impound vehicles order was aimed at bringing civility to their operations.

    He added that his administration would continue where the previous administration stopped.

  • Lagos to employ traffic personnel for 2016 Hajj

    The Lagos State Government will recruit traffic personnel to guide and enlighten pilgrims in Mecca during next year’s Hajj, Home Affairs Commissioner  Dr AbdulHakeem Abdullateef has said.

    This is to prevent the kind of stampede witnessed during this year’s hajj in which hundreds died.

    Speaking at a reception in his honour at the weekend,  AbdulLateef said government would also engage clerics to educate pilgrims on the pebbles throwing rite.

    Traffic officers, he said,  would be trained, adding that the trained personnel would go on pre-visit and understand the routes to Jamarat before guiding the pilgrims.

    He said: “We must now recruit traffic officers from home who will guide the pilgrims in Mecca. Pilgrimage has to do with traffic. If you look at the stampede for instance, the Saudi authority has its own share of the blame. People who embark on pilgrimage need to be educated especially in the area of obeying those in authority. The essence of pilgrimage is not to go and die, rather for worship. If the government can allocate specific time for specific nation, it must be obeyed. We need to educate the pilgrims that throwing of pebbles, as fundamental as it is among the hajj rites is not as fundamental as the Arafat.”

    Emphasising the need for people to be guided and enlightened when embarking on the hajj, Abdul-Lateef said conscious efforts would be made on the part of the government to guide against possible stampede and death.

    The Commissioner said the state government has begun arrangements to make the subsequent hajj exercise stress-free for the pilgrims, especially in the transportation area.

    “Our forms will be out between November 2 and 30. We will ensure there are no fraudulent acts in selling the forms. We will begin enlightenment by December,” he said.

  • LASTMA takes traffic campaign to religious centres

    LASTMA takes traffic campaign to religious centres

    The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) yesterday visited religious centres to promote traffic rules and regulations.

    The enlightenment campaign operation tagged: “Open Hearts” according to its General Manager, Bashir Braimah, would promote road safety with focus on voluntary compliance by motorists and drive home government message on zero tolerance for traffic indiscipline and lawlessness.

    “Since the centres enjoy patronage of large congregation, therefore it is imperative to carry them along in traffic management in the state for the desired result,” he said.

    Braimah observed that the perennial gridlocks are occasioned by indiscipline and abuse of traffic regulations amongst road users.

    He urged the congregation who are motorists not to flout traffic rules with impunity as such will have dire consequences on traffic flow and sanity on the roads.

    According to Braimah, stress-free ride on Lagos road is a collective responsibility of all to enhance the economic growth and sustain the mega city status of the state.

    The LASTMA team visited the Redeemed Christian Church of God at Ogudu, NASFAT, Alausa Secretariat Mosque and Christ the Light Chapel, Alausa.

  • Why I rob in traffic, by suspect

    Why I rob in traffic, by suspect

    A 37-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly robbing in traffic.

    The suspect, Michael Ogedengbe, who was caught by Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives in Surulere, Lagos Mainland, blamed his action on alcohol.

    According to the RRS, he had smashed the side screen of a motorist, robbed him of his handset, laptop and other valuables before he was arrested.

    One of his victims, Emmanuel Ugwunne, who was attacked inside his Honda Accord Saloon car with registration number, AGL 41 DC, attracted RRS operatives, when he shouted for help.

    RRS Commander, Olatunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said: “The policemen while on patrol duty saw Ugwunne crying for assistance after the suspect had damaged the windscreen and side mirror of his car to steal the valuable items.”

    Ogedengbe confirmed damaging the windscreen and side mirror of the car and stealing Ugwunne’s handset and laptop.

    “I didn’t do it ordinarily. It was because I just took some bottles of alcoholic drinks and liquor. I beg for forgiveness. Devil pushed me into the act,” he said.

    Disu said Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was committed to a crime-free state.

    “The governor is giving the Police Command all necessary support, and the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, has charged all the policemen in the state to ensure that Lagos is free from all forms of crime and robbery during and after ember months,” he said.

    The Suspect has been transferred to the Special Anti Robbery Squad for further investigation.

  • Dangers of driving against traffic

    Dangers of driving against traffic

    Over the years, lots of men and women, young and old have been killed or maimed by vehicles moving against the traffic.

    This offence of driving against the traffic is more common when there is heavy traffic on one lane thereby prompting the impatient and disobedient drivers or riders to illegally divert to the lane of oncoming vehicles.

    Having seen the meaning of and cause of this offence, let us examine the psychology and consequences of the offence.

    When a person is following a routine overtime, it will be registered in his or her subconscious mind thereby making it possible for him or her to perform that same task without giving much thought to it. For example, if a person has been moving around in a house for a while, he or she can move to several parts of the house even in the dark without stumbling because every nook and cranny of the house is already registered in his subconscious mind.

    In the same vein, when a road user’s mind is already made up about the direction of the traffic flow, he may not quickly think that a driver or rider can drive or ride against the traffic even though he knows that there are mad drivers and riders in the Country. This is the reason why many people have fallen victim of vehicles moving against the traffic.

    Driving against the traffic can result in the following:

    1. Crashes with oncoming vehicles who might not be expecting vehicles to drive against the traffic.
    2. Confusion for other road users who are scrambling to avoid having collision with the vehicles driving against the traffic.
    3. Crushing of pedestrians who have gotten used to looking at only are traffic direction before crossing the road and those backing the traffic without expecting vehicles to be coming from behind. It is worthy of note that most of the vehicles that drive against the traffic are usually furious and reckless in their driving mainly because they know that they are wrong thereby rushing to avoid being arrested by the law enforcement agents. Most of such wicked drivers are also guilty of hit and run.

    It is very disheartening that VIPs, Police officers,  and other security officers are also guilty of this terrible offence. Unless there is official diversion because of on-going road construction, maintenance or obstruction, no man or woman irrespective of the status should drive against the traffic.

    It is a form of traffic madness and this is one of the reasons the Lagos State Government in its traffic laws prescribed a psychiatry test for anyone that commits this offence of driving against the traffic in addition to paying the stipulated fine.

    I hereby recommend that the Federal Government through the Federal Road Safety Commission and the State Governments through their Traffic Management Agencies must stand firmly against this offence and take every possible step to prevent it through enforcement with appropriate penalties.  Anyone that cause accident or kills as a result of driving against the traffic should be prosecuted and jailed.

    Where compromise is established between the driver and the vehicle occupants is established, they should also be prosecuted with the driver or rider as the case may be.

    Members of the public should also commence the act of shouting at the offenders and snapping their vehicles with the number plates for direct reporting to the appropriate traffic management authorities and for posting on the social media as a way of curbing this destructive driving attitude which is currently pervading every part of the country no matter whose ass is gored.

    It is a shameful thing that Nigerian is still one of the countries with the highest rate road traffic crashes and fatalities in the committee of nations. It has therefore become expedient that every possible step, no matter how crude to be taken to drastically stem this very sad tide. A stitch in time saves nine.

  • Traffic tales

    Hardball has an idea — traffic tales!  Now, what do you think that is?

    Well, it is certainly tales about the traffic.  And if traffic is about vehicles and their drivers, including the ubiquitous Okada riders — traffic laws be damned! — it is certainly about what these drivers do or don’t do on the road.

    But while you probably would take a denotative view of all these road exploits, Hardball is taking a connotative view.  Want to take a sneak into the mind of a nation?  Then rivet your eyes on the behavioural pattern of its traffic.  Got the gist now?

    Imagine, you are driving, a law-abiding citizen; and a fellow road user just zooms at you from the opposite direction, flashing impatiently and totting on his horns.  Well, there is a fuel station which he is trying to enter and your car, on your legit lane, seems a nuisance on the way.  All the flashing and all the totting scream a single message: get the hell out of the way, you scum!

    Now, what do you do?  Scurry out of the way?  Or call his bluff by ignoring him, and seriously praying his brake is okay, so he won’t bash into your car, after a brake failure?  You probably act, according to your mindset, at that exact moment.

    Familiar, isn’t it?  Well, that unruly traffic behaviour just shows a good number of Nigerians — perhaps a majority, though there are not stats from studies to back up that claim — are simply indecorous, hasty and resort to insults, when they could simply have asked nicely.

    Again, look at your terrain, what do you observe?  A serpentine traffic, with a gridlock of truckers and tanker drivers staking their constitutionally given, not to talk of God-divined, right to inflict pains and make your day a hell on earth.

    Before you know it, a container has fallen upon a fellow road user, crushing a whole family.  Other nearby cars only escape by the whiskers.  Pronto, lucky to be alive (its Hobbes’s jungle, after all!), they scurry to the church and give testimonies on their great escape!  Not without reasons though: for far too many have perished in such wilful accidents, and seeming no action was taken, that they simply became statistics.

    Now, from this chaotic traffic, what sort of people are these?

    Peculiar people whose governments make laws but don’t have the guts to enforce their own laws.  And a minority of citizens that commit wilful crimes, yet insist on their right to such fatal wilfulness (fatal to the victims, but morbid trophies to the perpetrators), and go on to inflict even more tragedies.

    That is the sorry tale of Nigeria today.  Right now, Lagos groans under a heavy traffic; and the tormentors-in-chief are trailer drivers who have simply decided to call the bluff of the law.  And what does the government do?  Not exactly looking askance (though that seems what it is).  The last time Hardball heard, the government was trying to “negotiate” with these traffic outlaws.  But while the demonstration goes on, stress has reached a boiling point, with everyone seeming to be trapped and helpless.

    Nigeria’s traffic tales reveal a somewhat sub-human community, where traffic outlaws do as they damn wish and government appears scared to apply its own laws, even if that is what decent climes do!

    It is indeed a very sad tale.

  • FUTA builds traffic lights

    The Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), the Ondo State capital has embarked on the fabrication and installation of locally produced traffic lights on campus to control traffic.

    This is to boost its prowess in technology for self-reliance in accordance with its motto.

    The Head, Department of Electrical Electronics Engineering (EEE), Dr Samson Oyetunji, and the Project Manager, a Technologist in the same Department, Mr. Sola Oladiran,  said the university management had entrusted the project to the department  with the mandate that it should harness locally fabricated equipment to control traffic within the campus.

    The duo said the pilot traffic light had been installed at the Middle Belt Road (School of Engineering Junction).  The solar inverter of the traffic light is designed to retain charge for seven days.

    The Vice Chancellor, Prof Adebiyi Daramola, commended the ingenuity of the project team, pledging the  support of the university to ensure that it is replicated at other levels after the successful completion of the pilot scheme.

     

  • Traffic offenders to be sanctioned

    Traffic offenders are in for a rough ride in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) judging from pronouncements from the Administration.

    FCTA has also threatened to sanction motorists who indiscriminately park their vehicles on walkways and other unauthorised places.

    FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr. John Chukwu, an engineer, said this in Abuja at the first anniversary of the Abuja Computerised Vehicle testing services.

    Deputy Director and Chief Press Secretary FCT, Muhammad Sule made this known in a press statement, i which he stated that the Permanent Secretary had appealed to all Abuja road users to obey traffic rules and road signs to avoid crashes.

    He also stated, “The Permanent Secretary further threatened that parking on walkways and other unauthorised places would not be taken lightly as appropriate sanctions would also be applied.

    “Engr. Chukwu used the occasion to appeal to all road users in the Federal Capital Territory to obey traffic rules and road signs to ensure safety on Abuja roads.

    “He identified three major causes of road crashes, which according to him include the state of the road, the attitude of the driver and more importantly the state of the vehicle.

    “Where the state of the vehicle is largely compromised, the resultant effect can better be imagined and therefore every effort must not be spared to keep vehicles plying FCT roads Roadworthy.

    “The Permanent Secretary thus, instructed the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services to synergise with the operators of the Testing Centre to ensure that all vehicles in the Territory are subjected to the clinical diagnosis of the Centre before roadworthiness certificates are issued to the owners.

    “In order to reduce the effect of the high rate of road fatalities occasioned by the prevalence of unworthy vehicles, Engr. Chukwu directed the Directorate of Road Traffic Services to replicate Vehicle Testing Service Centres in all the six Area Councils of the Territory.

    “He reiterated that the establishment of the Testing Centre in the six Area Councils would provide easy access to motoring public in and around the Satellite Towns to get their vehicles tested.ý”

  • Suspected traffic robber held in Mile 2

    Suspected traffic robber held in Mile 2

    Operatives of Lagos State Police Command have arrested Monday Ubi for allegedly robbing a passenger in traffic.

    Ubi, described as a “traffic robbery kingpin” was arrested at Mile 2 by the Response Squad (RRS) following the victim, Orji Ogbonnaya’s distress call.

    Ubi was said to have removed N28,000 from Ogbonnaya’s pocket inside a Festac Town-bound bus.

    Ogbonnaya told the police that Ubi, who sat beside him, stylishly removed the money.

    Ogbonnaya said: “I boarded a bus to Mile 2 from Oshodi. On getting to Toyota, the suspect came in because there were still spaces in the bus. I didn’t have an inkling that he had a mission. I adjusted a bit from him and he also did making him closer to me. When I noticed that he had removed the money from my pocket after I touched my thigh, I pretended as if nothing had happened. Then I started looking if I could see any police patrol vehicle.

    “When we reached Mile 2, he wanted to alight from the bus but I held his trousers. As we alighted from the bus, I called the attention of the RRS patrol team I saw around.

    “Unknown to me, he had passed the money to one of his gang members. But when the police surrounded us, a man dropped the money on the road and ran away. It was when the suspect was being taken to the police headquarters that he confessed stealing my money and passing it to his partner.”

    Ogbonnaya thanked the policemen for helping him to recover his money.

    The suspect, who lives at Olutimeyin Street, Ayobo-Ipaja, said he is a member of the syndicate operating in Mile 2, Ajegunle and environs.

    “I used to sell second-hand clothes at Kantangwa market along Lagos-Abeokuta expressway. One of my customers introduced me to robbery. He taught me how to pick pockets without people’s knowledge. I intentionally sat beside him in the bus because we know our victims. This is not my first time. I have been in this profession for almost two years. I want the government to forgive me now that I know there is no gain in stealing,” Ubi said.

    RRS Commander Olatunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said the squad was committed to free Lagos from any criminal acts.