Lagos- Motorists and commuters on Friday urged the Lagos State and the Federal Governments to find a lasting solution to the perennial gridlock that often locks down the metropolis.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Lagos metropolis was again locked down by traffic jams, apparently caused by tankers and trucks heading to Apapa ports to lift petrol and other goods.
The development which every time it occurred, left motorists and commuters on the road for long hours, led to loss of man hours and impacted negatively on the economy.
Friday’s gridlock is coming as motorists and commuters were smarting from more than three weeks fuel scarcity that had engulfed the country.
The major roads affected by the situation are Ikorodu road, Agege Motor road, Funsho Williams Avenue, CMS, Surulere, Mushin, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and Ijora-Apapa road but the jam spilled over to the adjoining streets.
The gridlock forced some motorists to abandon their vehicles, while commuters alighted from the commercial vehicles they had boarded to trek kilometres to their destinations.
Mr Lanre Ikumogunniyi, a commuter, heading to Apapa from Iyana-Ipaja, expressed displeasure over the perpetual traffic congestion and urged the government to design measures to curb it.
“I left home at 6.30 a.m. for work today; the ride was smooth until we got to Mushin area; and between Mushin and Iganmu, we spent more than two hours.
“I eventually resorted to trekking from Costain to Apapa,’’ he said.
Another commuter, Mr Alao Kareem, said that the Ikorodu-CMS bound Bus Rapid Transit he boarded diverted to Yaba to avoid the gridlock on Funsho Williams Avenue (formerly Western Avenue).
“Even the Yaba we took wasn’t anyway better, so, I had to alight from the vehicle and walked from Yaba to Oyingbo,’’ he said.
Mrs Bose Okanlanwan, a trader blamed the indiscriminate parking of articulated vehicles, saying that “this is terrible; it is not good for us, our health and businesses.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
“We want the government to help us with the problem of tankers and trailers’’.
Mr Kola Alade, a civil servant said: “I left my home at Ayobo as early as 5.30 a.m. for work; who will believe that by 11. a.m., I am still on the way; it is terrible, it is suffering’’.
Alade added that many of his colleagues abandoned their staff bus and resorted to walking and appealed to the government to show more commitment to reducing traffic congestion.
Miss Grace Ocholi, who is a public servant, urged the government to build another sea port in Lagos to reduce the over-reliance on the Apapa ports.
She tasked the government to improve water transportation in the state.
A motorist, Mr Isaac Ojo, said that traffic congestion had compounded the already worsening fuel crisis in the country, saying that “I have burnt so much fuel.
“We cannot continue like this, things have to change, we are begging the government to do something urgently’’.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Petroleum and Gas workers union (NUPENG) has joined the call on the Lagos State Government to create parking lots for tankers and articulated vehicles.
The union said that the parking lots would ease the continuous traffic gridlock along the Apapa axis which spilled over to other roads in the metropolis.
Mr Tokunbo Korodo, the South-West Chairman of the union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that petroleum tankers were not getting access to depots to load fuel.
The chairman said that most of the tankers that came from different states of the federation were stranded due to the gridlock.
“The gridlock could not be attributed to petroleum tankers alone; more of these gridlocks are caused by articulated vehicles that did not have parking lots.
“The articulated vehicles have blocked all roads to Apapa private depots, depriving petroleum tankers from gaining access to load fuel.
“The only way out of this mess is for the state government to create parking lot for both articulated vehicle and petroleum tankers.
“This traffic gridlock will add more to the scarcity of fuel because the petroleum tankers are at a standstill now.
“For the past three days, it has been very difficult to get fuel out of Lagos and this is the only state from where fuel is being distributed to others,’’ Korodo said.
He urged the state government to enforce its traffic law on articulated vehicles so that they would be prohibited from daylight movement.
(NAN)
