The already bad traffic situation on Lagos roads and bridges has been made worse by the absence of police officers and men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) on the roads.
Driving and commuting experience in the sprawling city is now a lot more difficult and stressful as there is nobody in charge of traffic management and control, leading to chaos and longer hours on roads.
BusinessDay checks revealed that the situation is not any better on the island than it is on the mainland. Since after the shooting of EndSARS protesters at Lekki Tollgate and the attendant burning and looting of public properties, including police stations, there has been noticeable absence of policemen on roads.
“It is now three days since the Inspector General of Police (IGP) gave directives to the force area commanders to reclaim public space by taking charge and ensuring that the on-going burning and looting of public and private assets were stopped,” Timothy Agboola, a public affairs analyst, noted in a chat with BusinessDay.
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“That directive is yet to take effect and so we don’t see any police officer on the streets and that is encouraging the hoodlums to continue with the burning and looting, and motorists to drive any how,” Agboola added.
Expectation was high that with the IGP’s directive and the adjustment of the curfew imposed on Lagos by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu from 6am to 8pm, policemen would be everywhere on the streets to ensure there was no further breakdown of law and order, and also to enforce the curfew.
But going through major roads in the metropolis on Monday and Tuesday morning, it was discovered that policemen were not on their duties posts. LASTMA officials were not anywhere to be found too.
The whole stretch of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway from Agbara to Doyin in Orile Iganmu, had no single police officer or LASTMA official to control traffic. The same thing on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Lekki-Epe Expressway, and Agege Motor Road. On each of these routes, motorists are not finding it easy.
Lagosians are at a loss why LASTMA officials are off the roads, more so when Sanwo-Olu says Lagos has started the healing process after all that happened in the state in terms of loss of lives and destruction of public and private places which, the governor said, would require over N1 trillion to rebuild.
Agboola reasoned however that LASTMA officials might be off the road for fear of attack by hoodlums, or because of the warning which their boss issued to them on how to conduct themselves in the course of their duty in order to avoid public opprobrium.
On the flipside, while motorists and commuters are lamenting the absence of these officials and the challenging traffic situation that follows, mini-bus (Danfo) drivers, tricycle and motorcycle (okada) riders are happy with the way things are on the roads.
“We are happy with the absence of these officials on the roads; see how the roads are free everywhere; you can see that these people are the cause of the traffic (gridlock) we have in Lagos. Now you can even drive closing your eyes,” a Danfo driver who identified himself simply as Oliver, said Monday night in Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb.
Motocycle riders are even happier. “We see hell in the hands these police officers who sometimes seize our motorcycles and charge us a lot of money to get them back. Sometimes, they will seize your machine and never give it back to you,” a cyclist at Cele Bus Terminal said on Tuesday.
