The Corps Commander, Corridor 1 of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Oseni Hamzat, has expressed his frustration towards a frustrating situation on the notorious Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Hamzat has lamented the conduct of certain motorists, including commercial drivers and motorcades who refuse to drive in their designated lanes, adding to the already congested traffic situation.
Hamzat developed on his observations during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, stating that the bottlenecks are not entirely down to poor traffic management but due to the attitude exhibited by road users. Hamzat attributed much of the situation worsening due to reckless driving in lanes facing oncoming traffic. “We have lots of vehicles plying along that road and choking into that and to worsen the situation there are some drivers driving against the flow of traffic,” he said.
The situation is even more complicated by some of the errant drivers on the wrong side of the road, driving in lanes facing oncoming traffic. This kind of conduct is unacceptable and dangerous to other road users. “How do you relate with somebody who is carrying a moneybag and having armed men and they come in convoys, beating both road safety, LASTMA, even the deployed police at different points, including TRACE?” Hamzat asked. “They are driving recklessly, they are ready to hit anybody, knock anybody down. And they would go forward to go and block other vehicles coming either in or out.”
Although the traffic congestion is partially due to the ongoing construction, Hamzat remarked that the onus was on road users to exhibit patience. To ensure that commercial drivers do not stop indiscriminately and obstruct the movement of traffic, Hamzat noted that the FRSC and other sister agencies were making efforts to carry out “route lining.”
- According to him, the road agencies had a meeting on Tuesday with the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos and Julius Berger to restrategize on how best the menace could be curbed.
- The FRSC announced on Sunday a new traffic diversion on Lagos-Ibadan expressway due to ongoing reconstruction, Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Public Education Officer, stated in a release that the traffic had been diverted from linking the expressway at the New Garage axis of the road. The traffic from Isheri Olowora passing through River Valley Estate to link the expressway going into Lagos was also diverted to pass through Babcock College, opposite Enyo filling station to link the expressway and drive into Lagos.
- Kazeem further added that “Motorists could pass through Ojodu and make a U-turn in front of FRSC Ojodu to link the expressways at BRT Bus Stop.”
