| DEATH TRAP
•Tankers constitute danger at Ibafo
on Lagos–Ibadan expressway
By SEUN ADESIDA
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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Ibafo construction site
• PHOTO: Sun News Publishing
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The presence of tankers at Ibafo cannot be missed. They glare
at you like monumental monsters, dotting both sides of the
highway like mammoths lining up a narrow path. Initially,
what immediately comes to mind is that you have mistakenly
strayed into some newly constructed tankers’ park.
But then, you are jolted into reality as a slap of cold water
does to a drowsy face. No, you haven’t veered into a
park for tankers. You are still plying the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
It’s just that you are stuck at Ibafo, a community along
the expressway, where tankers and their owners are the kings
of the road.
At Ibafo, a community, in Obafemi Owode Local Government area
of Ogun State, the fear of tankers is the beginning of wisdom.
As soon as you move near the community ensconces somewhere
between the Deeper Life Conference Centre and the Prayer City
of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry on the expressway,
you begin to notice the ubiquity of the tankers. They park
awkwardly on both sides of the express road, apparently oblivious
of other road users.
A major fear gnawing minds of other road users is that a little
spark will, undoubtedly, set the whole place on a wild fire
that might be fatal to hundreds of commuters as well as vehicles
and buildings along the road.
Recently, residents of the area, as well as commuters on the
busy Lagos-Ibadan expressway, heaved a sigh of relief that
the tankers’ presence would soon become a thing of the
past. Their optimism was not misplaced. Construction giants,
Reynolds Construction Company, had just started work on the
shoulder of the expressway with a view to expanding the road.
Parts of the road that had become impassable were being repaired.
In the process, the tankers were moved away.
The people’s hopes appear to have come too early, however.
No sooner was the re-construction completed than the tankers
moved back to their former position. This time, they returned
in a more forceful fashion, turning the portions of the road
just rebuilt into their permanent parking spaces. And even
though the road is daily traversed by highly placed government
officials from across the country, notably from Ogun State,
the trailers and their owners appear to be above the law,
as the authorities merely look the other way, leaving residents
of the area as well as helpless commuters to silently mourn
their fate.
“It beats my imagination that government officials go
through this road,” says a frustrated member of the
Ibafo Landlords Association, who doesn’t want his name
in print. “Politicians, Ogun State officials and other
dignitaries all ply this road and yet nobody has deemed it
fit to call the bluff of the road marauders”. He described
as pathetic the fact that the government is trying to widen
the road so it could contain four vehicles at a go only for
the tankers to frustrate such efforts by crowding the place
in a bigger way.
According to him, the tankers refused to budge even when the
contractors moved to site until law enforcement agents were
brought in to effect the evacuation of abandoned trucks and
the unyielding ones.
“But as you can see, they are back on the spot. The
road is still under construction and they are parking on the
portions yet to be resurfaced with coal tar.”
You might wonder why security men in the area are yet to flush
out the unwanted guests from the nation’s busiest highway.
According to some police officers in the area, who spoke with
Daily Sun in confidence, the Ogun State government has never
asked them to flush out the recalcitrant truck drivers.
“As soon as we get such a directive, none of the trucks
will remain unless it actually breaks down or it’s involved
in an accident”, he says.
But the truck drivers are not without their excuses too. They
complain that government should provide them with a place
to park their trucks. Reminded that a truck park constructed
by Ogun State government actually exists at Ogere with a second
park near Ibafo, the man feigns ignorance of the existence
of such parks.
Many a time a number of trucks will break down in the middle
of the expressway. And since both sides of the highway are
usually littered with both functional and non-functional trucks
and tankers, meandering through the usually heavy traffic
becomes a hard task for vehicles plying the road.
As the rainy season approaches, the fear of people plying
the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, especially Ibafo residents, is
that their plight might become worse. And such fears are certainly
not misplaced.
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