Lagos State
Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Friday
told commercial motorcycle operators
popularly called Okada riders, commercial
buses and street hawkers, saying that the state government would no longer
tolerate their nefarious activities on the streets and highways. He said their
actions have caused untold hardship to the people of the state in recent times.
Addressing
Government House Correspondents shortly after an emergency Security Council
Meeting which he chaired, Governor Ambode said that it had become evident that
traffic crimes and robbery are mostly as a result of the menace of Okadariders and street
hawkers, while recalcitrant commercial buses have become lawless and reckless
on the road.
He reminded that
Schedule II of the Lagos State Road Traffic Law 2012 restricts Okada, tricycle (Keke
Marwa), carts and wheel barrows on some routes including Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway, Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Oworonshoki-Oshodi Expressway,
Lagos-Ikorodu Expressway, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and Third Mainland Bridge.
Others routes include Eti-Osa/Lekki
–Epe Expressway, Lagos –Badagry Expressway, Funsho Williams Avenue, Agege Motor
Road and Eti-Osa/Lekki Coastal Road.
The Governor therefore said, “Any
person who fails to comply with any of the provisions of this Section commits
an offence and shall be liable on conviction as stipulated in the law.
“Henceforth, all commercial vehicles,
except Bus Rapid Transport buses, must use only the service lanes in accordance
with existing traffic laws. All conductors of Commercial buses must sit down in
their buses and keep the doors closed at all times while in motion. It is
against the Law for conductors to hang on the bus doors and leave the doors
open. Any bus contravention will be met with severe punitive measures.
“Commercial buses can only drop and
pick passengers at officially designated bus stops henceforth. Any illegal and
indiscriminate picking and dropping of passengers is against the
law. “Other road users who break traffic laws will pay a compulsory
traffic fine in accordance with the law. Mobile Traffic courts are being
introduced to prosecute offenders promptly”.
Governor Ambode also took time to
speak on the traffic situation in Apapa axis of the state, attributed the
gridlock to the situation of tank farms and daily activities of petrol tankers
in the area.
He expressed concerns that more tank
farms are in the process of being approved, revealing that Lagos alone accounts
for 80 percent of the cargo that comes into the country through the ports while
about 90 percent of the fuel used across Nigeria is loaded in Lagos.
He also frowned at the fact that
three months after meeting with tank farm and petrol tanker owners, they have
been unable to come up with a solution to the gridlock caused by the tankers
queuing up on roads and bridges to load petroleum products.
He however said that the state of
affairs that has accentuated traffic gridlock in Apapa area and its environs is
no longer tolerable to the State Government saying that necessary arrangements
have been made with the relevant Regulatory Institutions to sanction defaulting
port users – importers, tank farm owners, terminal operators and shipping
companies.
On the backdrop of this, Governor
Ambode said the Security Council decided that all tank farms be given a 90-day
grace period to build loading bays for their tank farms, with a caveat that
any tank farm that fails to provide a loading bay after the grace
period, would be shut down by the state government.
“In addition, tank farms owners must
desist from allocating pick-up papers to trucks beyond and above their daily
capacity as is the case presently,” he said. Governor Ambode also
admonished residents of the state to see the last two months of the year as a
period that calls for vigilance and a changed attitude towards issues relating
to crime and terrorism.
He urged residents to cooperate with
the government at all times, just as he warned them against the dangers of
patronizing street hawkers.
“The next hawker could be a robber or
terrorist. You are now well-advised. If we all cooperate and decide not to buy,
gradually and collectively, the hawkers will not come to the highways and
streets anymore. Our roads will definitely become safer”.
“Our security agencies have been
directed to increase their presence on the roads and highways to ensure greater
safety. Once again, I am committed to a safer, cleaner and more prosperous
Lagos; a Lagos that works for all”, he said.
But while he was announcing this
hoodlums were robbing commuters along Mile 2 to Kirikiri stretch of the
Oshodi-Apapa Expressway where the gridlock slowed traffic. On his part,
Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni also assured that the Police will
increase their presence across major areas of the state as well as ensure the
total enforcement of the laws of the land.
...vanguard
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