Death trap on Lagos-Ibadan road

Thursday, December 3, 2009
It is an unpatriotic prayer, but the residents of Soka area on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway are praying that an important dignitary takes a plunge into the Ogunpa channelisation under the Soka bridge about three kilometers after the old toll gate on the Ibadan end of the road. The reason is the frequency of the accidents on the bridge, which has not attracted any attention whatsoever from any of the three tiers of government. It is a federal road, so the Oyo State government is not concerned, but even the federal Controller of Works in the state insists that the road is no longer within the purview of the Federal Government, having been concessioned to Dr. Bola Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney. Tayo Lewis, Toyin Malik and Taiwo Olanrewaju review the situation, concluding that something needs to be done urgently.

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The joinings on the bridge are all coming apart gradually, forcing motorists to a sudden halt after the slope.
Photos: D’Toyin.





“OUR fervent prayer is that a top government official’s car will fall inside this canal with the official inside. Then, certainly the bridge atop the canal will be repaired.”

This was the general consensus of the residents, traders and artisans around Soka/Felele junction area of Ibadan on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

“What manner of a prayer?,” wondered the FeaturesXtra crew, who visited the area to investigate the rampant fatal crashes of all sorts of vehicles into the canal.

Responding, a trader in the area, who simply identified himself as Alhaji Fatai said, the bridge over the canal, was a death trap, set by the government for the citizenry and that the trap had made many catches.

The middle-aged man, who lamented the death of innocent souls in the canal, said the unnecessary loss of lives was becoming too rampant while the three tiers of government went about their businesses unperturbed.

“It is as if the lives of Nigerians mean nothing to our leaders. The other day, when the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, had a burst tyre at Sanyo area on this same expressway, it was the very next day that some people came to repair some parts of the road,” he added.


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“If the former president’s car had fallen into this canal, will the government not have repaired the bridge immediately?” asked Mr. A. O. Afolabi, another resident. Shedding more light on the issue, Mr. Boladale, S.I, a prominent member of the area’s landlords’ association said the landlords in the area had met with FERMA, and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), which could not proffer any solution to their problems.

He also explained that they met with the officials of Ibadan South-West Local Government whose responsibility it was to take care of some of their demands, the officials said the local government did not have the money needed for such a project.

What exactly were their demands, FeaturesXtra sought to know. Alhaji Abass Arowopoko, Alhaj Nureni Adeyemo, Mr. Taju Alimi and Segun, a mechanic, all agreed that the first and most important task at hand, was to tar the access road under the bridge, a responsibility, the local government was said to have turned down.

The people of Soka area, therefore, appealed to the governor of Oyo State, Chief Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala to tar the access road under the bridge which leads to Molete and also links up with the expressway on the bridge.

The residents would also like the government of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to build cement slabs to cover the sides of the bridge, which would prevent vehicles from falling into the canal. To curb the incessant plunging of vehicles into the canal, the residents suggested that while the road should be repaired, bumps should be mounted on the road to curb over-speeding by errant drivers.

They also suggested that some iron rods, used in constructing the bridge which are bad already and pose a lot of danger to motorists’ tyres, bursting them, thereby, causing accidents or vehicles in question to somersault be repaired or replaced.

Tarring of the access road under the bridge, Mr. Bademosi noted, would mean an end to vehicles crossing the expressway any how and apart from reducing accidents, long queues of hold up would cease, thereby enabling workers and students of the Leads City University, who reside in the area, to get to their places of work and campus on time.

Going down memory lane, Alhaj Fatai, said the expressway was opened up for use in 1979.” Then, the expressway was the safest road to travel on,” he recollected, even as he added that lack of maintenance of the road has turned it into a death trap.

Another resident also noted that if vehicles break down on the road, they are not evacuated on time. That, coupled with the brake failure of articulated vehicles, he said, lead to a lot of accidents on the highway.

Trying to gather the statistical data of the rate of accidents on the expressway, especially those which vehicles ended up in the canal, Features Xtra was told that fatal accidents occurred on a weekly basis while others said it was a monthly occurrence. Some of the artisans on the road, who get involved actively in the rescue exercises whenever there was an accident, claimed that so far, this year, several cases had occured this year with between five and eight being fatal.

All efforts to get an accurate statistical data of the accidents rate from the Sanyo Divisional Police station proved abortive, as the Divisional Traffic Officer (DTO), who claimed to be new in office, directed the FeaturesXtra crew to the Police Public Relations Officer at thew State headquarters. She was however not available.

Recounting the type of people who had perished in the canal, the people of Soka area made mention of one of the wives of the late strongman of Ibadan politics, Alhaji Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, whose wife, Iya Akeem died after an accident in the canal. Mention was also made of a police officer, who, with his wife and set of twins, also perished there.

A fully loaded 18-seater bus was said to have plunged into the canal with no survivor. An SUV (jeep) was said also said to have fallen into the canal earlier this year. While the driver was said to have sustained little or no injury, the vehicle was damaged and since it landed on its wheels, was driven out of the canal.

On Saturday, 12th September, 2009 the Oyo State Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA and his wife were hit by an articutaled vehicle loaded with kerosine. Although the couple miraculously escaped death, they sustained grave injuries and four of the five occupants of the articulated vehicle died when they all ended up inside the canal. According to an architect, the bridge is about three stories high from the bed of the canal.

The problem with this spot is multifacetted as FeaturesXtra found out. Since the bridge is at the same level with the road without any side barriers, most drivers descend the slope at great speed, oblivious of the existence of a gulf on either side. As they get to the bridge, the seperators are almost out, so, driving is suddenly slowed down and an unwary driver will simply rush down to his death, carrying other innocent road users. Speaking on this troubled spot, Mr. David Mendie the Federal Road Safety Corp Commander in Oyo State said the Commission cannot station its officers here as it is a slope and an expressway.

According to him, the commission is resilient in its campaign to encourage carefull driving to prevent accidents which he lamented was still on the high side, especially involving articulated vehicles. Mr. Mendie appealed for donors to install road signs on the road where necessary. Alhaji Fatai, who said he had been living in the neighbourhood since 1979, stated the first instance as that of his first son, whose vehicle plunged into the canal in 1996 but miraculously survived.

Before the case involving the Oyo NMA Chairman, a Mercedes Benz which plunged into the canal was retrieved with the three occupants dead. At a nearby hospital, where accident victims in the canal are usually rushed to, Beloved Hospital and Maternity Centre, the centre’s matron, who refused to disclose her name, confirmed the fact that the spate of accidents in the canal is too rampant, while there are usually no survivors.

She, therefore, urged the government to repair the road, build a concrete slab to cover the bridges at the side and do it in good time too, to prevent the citizenry from untimely deaths. Meanwhile, a motorcyclist, who craved anonymity, linked the spate of accidents on the bridge to the fetish sacrifices usually deposited in the area. But another cyclist quickly countered him, even as the claimed that if the road was in good shape and the bridge had slabs covering its sides, the effect of the fetish sacrifices would be of little or of no significance.

Speaking with the FeaturesXtra on the road, the Federal Controller of Works in Oyo State, Engr. Anya Omarekpe said: “The whole stretch of Lagos-Ibadan expressway has been concessioned to Bi-Courtney under the public/private partnership scheme of government. So, for now, there is nothing the Federal Ministry of Works can do since the road has been handed over.They are the ones to take over the maintenance of the road.

“The problem of vehicles falling into the canal is because of the vandalisation of the handrails and government would have intervened now but for the concessioning.” When told that it had been gathered that the Bi Courtney’s agreement with the Federal Government on the road terminates at the Ibadan toll gate end of the expressway, Engr. Omerekpe said he could not say anything on that because there’s an office - Public-Private partnership unit which is in charge and the officials would be able to give more information on the origin and terminal points of the contract.

“Nevertheless, we still have oversight functions over Bi-Courtney and since you have informed us of this situation, we will express same to the contractor,” the Federal Controller of Works said. On the issue of people driving across the expressway to access the other side of the road to link Felele area, the Engineer described the action as pure indiscipline. “The best thing to do is that if you are coming from Lagos, you go on the overhead bridge at Methodist Grammar School axis to link Challenge before going to Felele.

“When a road is called an expressway, access is restricted. There must be a distance between the bridges, that must be maintained, so, another one cannot be mounted at Felele area of the expressway. It was the people living in that area that put laterite so that they could access Felele from Soka area. Everything amounts to indiscipline. That is why there are so many accidents on the road,” Engr. Omerekpe explained.

He also added that Bi-Courtney would take care of necessary road signs that need to be erected on the expressway to warn motorists. FeaturesXtra only hopes that the three tiers of government would accede to the demands of the people in Soka area before their prayer is answered.


http://odili.net/news/source/2009/dec/3/613.html

what can you hope for?

Yaradua is in Saudi watching football!

Naija!! How can a country be like this. . .and people only PRAY for their leaders when they should DEMAND and receive in practical terms ACCOUNTABILITY and RESPONSIBILITY? How can I honestly be quiet about this MADNESS in Nigeria when the road right in front of my HOUSE is much better than the EXPRESS way from Lagos to Ibadan?

CyberG:

Naija!! How can a country be like this. . .and people only PRAY for their leaders when they should DEMAND and receive in practical terms ACCOUNTABILITY and RESPONSIBILITY? How can I honestly be quiet about this MADNESS in Nigeria when the road right in front of my HOUSE is much better than the EXPRESS way from Lagos to Ibadan?

True yan!!

back2back:

what can you hope for?

Yaradua is in Saudi watching football!

Thunder go strike im eye, if na true!