- Risks people who close late from work face
By Olakunle Olafioye
The time was few minutes before 11p.m, yet the Under Bridge bus stop at Oshodi, Lagos, was still bustling with crowd of people most of who were passengers waiting impatiently for the next available vehicles on their way home. It was not out of place to believe that not everyone at the bus stop at such ungodly time of the day was a genuine passenger. A good number of them were criminals waiting for the right time to prey on unsuspecting people. The highly efficient lightings at the bus stop provided sort of optical illusions, yet only a few would be carried away by the illumination. Soon a bus arrived and the scramble to get onboard began. Mrs. Ronke Odebiyi, aided by the indecision of some people, who were obviously trying to figure out if it was safe to join the bus by scanning through faces of the passengers already onboard, managed to get into the bus. She would later discover that she was the only female passenger onboard.
“Initially, I contemplated disembarking, but on the second thought, especially considering the fact that I might not be so lucky to get on the next bus, I steeled my mind for any eventuality even as I prayed silently. My fear evaporated gradually as the bus ploughed closer to my destination,” she said.
Unknown to the occupants of the bus, the street lights along the road had blinded their eyes against a serious danger until they got to a portion of the road without streetlights. “At that point, we discovered that the bus we boarded did not have headlights and as such, the driver would have to rely on the lights from other vehicles around. We could only rain abuses on the driver, whose only defense was that the fault happened shortly after he took off from Oshodi.”
The dark arrow of finality nearly struck the passengers a few metres from Dopemu Under Bridge Bus Stop as the driver narrowly escaped ramming the bus into a stationary truck, whose driver was seen trying to re-start it after it suddenly went off.
Just like Mrs. Odebiyi and other passengers in the bus, most Lagosians who return home late at nights have terrifying tales to tell about their experiences with vehicles that failed roadworthiness tests but whose owners, out of wickedness or sheer greed, decide to commute with them at nights when agencies saddled with responsibility of ensuring that only vehicles certified roadworthy ply the roads.
Rickety bodies, heavily smoky engines, shattered windscreens among many other traffic infractions which put the lives of passengers at risk, according to Lagosians who shared their experiences with Sunday Sun, are the hallmark of some of the vehicles that ply the roads during late hours. Yet the dangers, which confront people who return home at nights are legion.
Until May this year, Mr. Chukwuma Ihesiaba, a resident of Iju- Ishaga never considered the idea of having to stay behind in office whenever he closed late at work a reasonable option. The father of three narrated to Sunday Sun how two separate incidents on Friday, May 12 and Friday, May 26, made him have a change of mind about staying behind in office whenever he is unable to close on time.
“On Friday, May 12 I needed to complete a task I was assigned in office that day. I left the office on the Island some minutes after 8’0 clock. But due to the chaotic traffic situation that day I could not get to Agege until past 11 pm. There were lots of other passengers at the bus stop that night too.
“Suddenly, there was uproar among some hoodlums in the area and before we knew what was happening they swooped on the people especially those with handbags and began to dispose them of their valuables. I lost one of my phones to the incident. The guy who collected it from me threatened to stab me with the knife he was holding. Some people sustained injuries during the incident. I later discovered that the chaos was deliberately staged by those area boys in order to perpetrate their criminal act,” Ihesiaba narrated.
If Mr. Ihesiaba’s first experience was terrifying enough to discourage him from going home late at nights, it was his second experience that made him take the decision to always defer his going home whenever he closes late. Ironically however, his second late night ordeal came from people he said he had thought would provide the succour he needed at such dangerous time of the night.
According to him, “I got to Agege late as usual and had to wait for a bus to Iju. Luckily, a bus stopped by and the driver decided to give us a lift to a point before Fagba junction. But less than two minutes after we alighted, another bus parked and we were immediately surrounded by policemen and ordered to move inside the bus. They were five in number, including the driver. We all tried to explain ourselves and some of us even brought out our Identity cards but they insisted we board the bus, saying we would do that when we get to their station.
“The bus would later divert towards Jonathan Coker road. When I sought to know the police station we were being taken to, I was told to exercise patience. My fear was however compounded when a man attempted to make a call with his cell phone and was warned against doing so.
“Soon we got to a point and the driver pulled off the road. At this point we were asked to identify ourselves. None of us could muster the courage to ask why we were not taken to the station as they earlier promised. Out of about eight of us in the bus, it was only three of us that were able to provide our identity cards but in spite of that we were not released until we were thoroughly searched and extorted. I bailed myself with N2000 before we were taken to a junction where they helped to stop a cab that conveyed the three of us to Iju. The remaining five people were still being quizzed as at the time we left the scene.
Besides allegation of indiscriminate arrest and extortion of Lagosians returning home late at nights, some residents of the state have equally accused the police in the state of compounding their ordeals while returning home late at nights. According to some of them, the police often take advantage of the10’0 clock deadline given to commercial motorcycle operators to feather their nest to the detriment of the people who are anxious to return home.
“Going back late at night could be a nightmare,” Rasaq Omotosho, who resides at Command area of Ipaja, Lagos, he observed. According to him, the police whom he accused of endlessly extorting, tricycle operators, commercial bus drivers as well as commercial motorcyclists plying inner streets often have to suspend their operations most times due to harassments by the police in the area.
“I have had cause to trek long distances from Ile-epo bus stop before I finally got help to get home at nights. From Ile-Epo to Iyana- Ekoro down t o Ile-Iwe bus stop, you will always see them almost at every junction, most time drunken, extorting and harassing particularly tricycle operators. And because of this, majority of these tricycle operators would retire to their homes for the day rather than have to part with their hard-earned money and incessant harassments from police men on every trip.
“On such nights, commuters are always the ones to bear the brunt because they are bound to even get home later than they would have were they to get tricycles or buses on time. Many of us always have difficult times with watchmen in our neighbourhoods,” Omotosho said.
But reacting to the allegations leveled against the police, the Public Relations Officer for the Lagos State Police Command, Chike Oti, a Superintendent of Police, told Sunday Sun in a telephone interview that as much as the state Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, is committed to ensuring that the state government’s decision to operate a 24-hour economy in the state is not jeopardized, the police, according to him have the mandate to enforce the 10 pm restriction order on the operations of commercial motorcyclists and tricycle operators.
“The CP in his bid to make sure the state is safe has directed all police men in Lagos state to duly enforce all traffic laws in the state as it concerns the use of motorways, motorcycles and tricycles all in a bid to curb crimes in the state,”
The police spokesperson, while noting that motorcycles and tricycles provide easy get-away for criminals at nights, said the police have the rights to impound any motorcycle and tricycle that flouts the restriction order and prosecute the operator.
SP Oti urged Lagosians to use taxi and commercial buses, which according to him, are not under the restriction order. “The directive that tricycles and motorcycles should not operate beyond 10 pm is for the common good of everybody. As such, law enforcement officers should not be blamed for arresting offenders and impounding their tricycles,” he said adding that command was determined to make Lagos state safe for residents all the time.