VIOS returning to Lagos roads?
Is the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode losing grip of governance in Nigeria’s commercial capital, even before May 29, his official handing over date? Or are the agencies and personnel of government testing the will of the governor in the belief that his days are counting down?
Or could there have been some subtle relaxation of the executive order which bans the operations of Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOS) from the roads in Lagos?
These are the questions begging for answers, as the VIOS are seen gradually returning to the roads.
Asides the VIOS, all, indeed, seems not to be well on the roads in Nigeria’s economic nerve centre. Enforcement of law and order has been sliding. So much that traffic infractions have become the delight of motorists.
Apart from the recalcitrant yellow commercial buses operators, tricycles and motorcycles are seen daily violating the laws that guide their operations with the law enforcement agencies, especially the police, unable to arrest the slide.
It took Governor Ambode to personally apprehend a security officer who chose to drive against the flow of traffic in the state, last week. Ambode was said to have expressed shock on sighting a vehicle driving directly opposite his (one-way). But driving one-way is no strange occurrence in Lagos. What is strange is the lack of enforcement of the extant traffic laws.
Checks in some parts of Lagos metropolis also show that in defiance to the governor’s executive order which restricts operations of the VIOS from the roads and encourages them to deploy hi-tech in their inspection, some operatives of the Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) of the state ministry of transportation, have been sighted on stopping and checking vehicles on the roads since late 2018.
On Friday, January 18, 2019 for example, some operatives of VIS were sighted on Agbegbi Road, in Ijesha, Surulere, in their usual manner of operation. Their black/yellow stripes operational Hilux truck was parked by the roadside while the personnel stayed out to flag down oncoming vehicles.
A motorist who craved anonymity also said he had sighted the VIO operatives several times around Ojodu Berger flagging down vehicles.
“Initially I thought it was a one off operation triggered by something. But after that I have seen them thrice around Ojodu. It seems they’re gradually coming back,” said the motorist.
Also, resident of Okota area of the state, who identified himself as Azeez, said he also sighted the VIOS in December last year, with their operational vehicle parked in his street while the personnel were stopping oncoming vehicles. “Ambode may not be aware of what they‘re doing. Somebody needs to draw the governor’s attention to it, said Azeez.
It would be recalled that Governor Ambode in May 2017 while inaugurating pedestrian bridges, laybys and slip roads at Ojodu Berger along the LagosIbadan Expressway, banned the operations of the VIOS permanently from the roads.
Ambode challenged the VIOS to come up with technology to monitor and track vehicle registration and MOT certifications.
He had also directed the Federal Road Safety Commission ( FRSC) officials to stay off the inner- city roads and the main streets of Lagos, saying the operation of the federal agency should be restricted to the fringes and highways over which the Federal Government has jurisdiction.
He said: “The VIOS have been asked to stay off our roads permanently. The FRSC is to stay on the fringes and highways and not on the main streets of Lagos”.
Before banning the operations of the VIOS from the roads, complaints had been rife about the high handedness of the operatives.
Their activities were also linked to worsening traffic situation within Lagos metropolis while they also had several brushes with motorists, some of which resulted in accidents and casualties.