Inadequate capacity may limit Lagos’ drive to check road carnage

Shortage of capacity for the enforcement of its laws may be working against the move by Lagos State to check incessant trailer and petroleum tanker accidents and the attendant loss of lives.

The most recent of such accidents in the state occurred on Wednesday, September 2, at Ojuelegba, Surulere, where a container fell off the bridge and landed on two vehicles, killing three persons on board one of the vehicles.

Irked by the sad occurrence, the state government in a statement by Oluseyi Whenu, permanent secretary in the state ministry of transport, at the weekend, said it was invoking the provisions of Section 2 (i) and 2 (ii) of the Lagos Road Traffic Law 2012, which restricts trailers and long trucks from plying the metropolis between 6am and 9pm.

Like in the past, inadequate capacity in traffic management personnel and logistics may be hindering the state from effectively carrying out the enforcement of the provisions of the law, as thousands of trailers, trucks and tankers enter the state daily.

These vehicles are already defying the fresh directive as several of them were seen on the roads at the restricted hours on Monday, with the police and other law enforcement agencies appearing helpless.

“We are not stopping the trucks because there is no directive from the commissioner of police to do so,” said a policeman in front of Area ‘B’ Command, Apapa, adding, however, that they were aware of the directive by the state ministry of transport to the trailer drivers restricting their movement.

BusinessDay findings show that there is inadequate capacity in personnel, logistics and equipment for the police, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), the three agencies involved in traffic management and safety on roads in the state.

The police and FRSC are federal agencies, while LASTMA is a state agency charged principally with traffic management with some powers, in line with its enabling act to enforce traffic laws only in Lagos.

While vehicular density in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, is increasing by the day, and currently put at 224 vehicles per kilometre, the number of personnel in traffic management and enforcement is not matching up. In the last three years, the state government in its bid to tackle incidence of corrupt practices among LASTMA officials shoved close to 400 out. It had therefore been more of sack than recruitment of new LASTMA officers.

The Lagos State police command on its part is said to be operating with a little over 30,000 officials, with the state population estimated by the United Nations Habitat at about 18 million people.

Also, a senior official of the FRSC told BusisnessDay in confidence that the corps lacked the capacity in personnel and logistics to effectively enforce traffic laws in Lagos. He described the number of vehicles on Lagos roads as overwhelming, stressing that to effectively cover Lagos, more personnel and logistical support would be required.

“We want to do more, but unfortunately we can only do what we can do with the personnel and logistics available to us,” said the officer.