Peter Anosike
Residents of Ago Palace way, Okota, Lagos State have cried out to the Lagos State government over the menace of articulated trucks along Ago-Okota road.
Speaking at their yearly thanksgiving, the Chairman of Ago-Palace way Landlords and Residents Association, Nixon Okwara, said a lot of lives have been lost as a result of the articulated trucks that park recklessly along the road. He said that they have made several appeals to the local and state governments for the trucks to be removed but to no avail.
According to him, government and representatives have become indifferent to their plight. He said that on many occasions the Executive Chairman of Isolo Local Council Development Area has tried to intervene but that the truck drivers and the terminal owners located along the road refuse to heed his warning.
His words: “Let us remember that evil thrives when good people do or say nothing. I say it without any fear of contradiction; it’s now clear to the blind and loud to the deaf that no respite is in any way close over the untold hardship imposed by the parking of trailers and lorries on our roads. We must go to the local government and the state once again and demand for immediate action especially on the removal of the trucks and trailers from our roads.”
Okwara said that apart from trucks posing as death traps, hoodlums also use them as havens and act as if they are the owners of the area. “They even neglect the advice of the Executive Chairman of the government, attack and rob motorists and other road users. This has resulted in residents living in fear for their lives and property,” Okwara said.
Contributing, another resident, Moses Onwughalu suggested that they should write and request for town hall meeting with their representatives both state and federal levels.