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| Governor Ambode |
Unfortunately, the police boss missed the point when
he said recently that the matter was exaggerated. Victims of this ingenious
robbery method in Nigeria’s most nerve-jangling city will obviously scoff at
Owoseni’s assessment of the problem; and they are many. A few of them will
suffice: Matthew Ojo, Chika Johnson, Tayo Omoregie, Omowunmi Olatunji and
Monday Odey.
Driving home to Omole Estate from work on Lagos
Island, Ojo, a banker, was robbed at about 7.30 pm recently, near Iyana-Oworo
Bus Stop, while Odey said he was attacked at the same Iyana-Oworo with the
Lagos State Traffic Management Authority officials watching. Chika was a victim
on the Agboju-FESTAC Gate axis.
Narrating his experience, Ojo said, “There was traffic gridlock, which hindered
vehicles from moving fast. I spent three hours to move from the Island to
Iyana-Oworo en-route to Omole. As I drove past Iyana-Oworo towards Ogudu, a man
suddenly appeared from behind, hit my car and ordered me to give him all I had.
As I attempted to wind up my car window glass, the guy showed me a (the) butt
of (a) gun that was tucked inside his trousers by his groin. He ordered me to
give him my phones. But as I was still fumbling with the phones, he stretched
his hands into the car and made away with my bag and two phones.”
There was also a report on Friday of how a gang of
over 10 robbers descended on the bridge linking Costain Bus Stop with Eko
Bridge, the previous day, wielding cutlasses, pistols and knives. They smashed
windscreens and robbed unmolested for 15 good minutes before making good their
escape. The police were nowhere to be found.
Instructively, these attacks take place at “black
spots” already known to the police, such as Oshodi-Oke, Apongbon Bridge,
Gbagada-Oworonsoki-Ketu, Ojota, Berger and long bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway, Third Mainland Bridge, Murtala Muhammed Airport Road, Iyana-Oworo,
CMS Bus Stop, among others. Motorists should be wary of these areas.
Traffic snarl, a perennial mayhem, which the
hoodlums exploit, occurs mostly because many of the roads are dilapidated.
Reckless driving often results in accidents and obstruction; rickety vehicles
that ought not to be plying the roads frequently break down, and no speedy
responses to their removal. There are also few traffic lights to moderate the
flow of vehicular movements and the city lacks CCTVs in critical mass to track
criminals.
The few installed are not functioning, says the
governor. “The CCTVs have been handed over to the Nigeria Police. But they do
not see anything. So, the state government, the police, and other security
agencies technically have analog technology,” he said. Besides, potholes morph
into craters to impede the smooth flow of traffic, simply because, at the
developing stages, they never receive immediate attention from relevant
agencies of government.
In view of the enormity of the problem, we advise
that the governor’s duty schedule should include regular trips on these roads,
especially areas not inhabited by the elite, to see things for himself. In
fact, many city roads are like the Isolo-Ejigbo-Ikotun Egbe Road – abandoned
for long by a contractor – which the governor visited recently, and expressed
his disapproval of its condition. Service lanes adjoining federal highways like
the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Ikorodu-Funso Williams Avenue are riddled with
craters, forcing commercial drivers to avoid them. They then spill into the
expressway to navigate their way out of the chaos. Plying these routes at peak
hours is a nightmare that is better imagined than experienced by any resident.
Dealing effectively with robbery in traffic,
therefore, will require aggressive policy measures and implementation of extant
laws that conduce to orderly society. In this wise, roads rehabilitation should
engage the state’s attention more than ever before; just as the law on street
trading and hawking should be religiously enforced. It is difficult to
appreciate why street lights cannot be regarded by the government as a critical
security facility. With solar power technology and its huge financial
resources, the government should see this as a necessity.
The Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Other
Special Offences (Enforcement Unit) should see itself as having failed woefully
in ridding the city of street traders and hawkers. Quite often, most roads are
narrowed by street traders who display their wares along them, as they target
workers returning home in the evening. From these hordes of the so-called
hustlers, emerge the traffic robbers, who easily disappear with the speed of
light after each operation.
According to Section 10 of the Street Trading and
Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003, any offender is liable to a fine of
N5,000, or three months imprisonment upon conviction. Had there been strict
implementation of this law since it was passed, traffic robbery would not have
festered. It was in response to the traffic crisis that the government set up
LASTMA. However, its work is often hampered by these challenges. Regrettably,
the situation may not change until the government and the police begin to take
law enforcement seriously.
Ultimately, what counts in governance is not
rhetoric, but action or concrete achievements. Consequently, the state Security
Council meeting should prove to residents that the city has not relapsed into
its infamous past, as not a few are wont to posit.
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