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Stiff Penalty for Lagos traffic offenders
Abdul Semiu Babalola, Lagos
More stiff penalties now await traffic offenders in the commercial city of Lagos, south west Nigeria, as the state government reiterated its determination to improve the transportation System and penalise violators.
The State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, gave the warning in Lagos during the finals of the, “2011 Be Road Friendly (BRF) Competition”, among public primary and secondary school students.
“Transportation is the cornerstone of modern civilization; the efficiency of public transportation has enormous impact on the quality of live that we will all need,” the Governor told his audience at the ceremony.
No Hiding place
He recalled his personal effort to ensure that a traffic violator was arrested for prosecution. In his words, “Just as I made my way this morning to this event we were faced with a motorcycle operator (okada rider), on third mainland bridge driving and heading in the wrong direction against us. In spite of all our efforts, in spite of our partnership, in spite of our appeal, some people just choose to break the law. But I know that today that man will regret his action because we stopped on the bridge we arrested him and he will face trial”.
The Governor warned everyone who comes to do business in the state to obey the traffic laws or face the pay dearly for misdemeanour.
While commending the efforts of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA), the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) in the management of the chaotic Lagos traffic, cautioned the LATSMA officials against acting above the laws and motorists flouting traffic rules.
The BRF Initiative
The “Be Road Friendly (BRF) Competition”, which started in 2009, comes under the Lagos State School Traffic Safety Advocacy Programme. BRF aims at empowering young people very early in life to understand the risk associated with road traffic and other users.
Over 6,000 entries were received with 18 pupils from public primary and secondary schools participating in the final competition. Six winners emerged from all the three categories after making their presentation to a live audience.
The three categories are from primary, junior and senior secondary schools. All the winners will be sponsored to the United Kingdom by the state Government to learn more about traffic safety advocacy and management.
Under the primary schools category Oyinlola Alabi of Community Primary School Work yard Mushin, emerged first and Adedumoye Ayorinde from Oluwalogbon Primary School, Ketu clinched the second position.
In the junior secondary school category, Ogungbayo Oluwabukola of Eva Adelaja Junior Girls Secondary School Bariga, came first followed by Paul Jonah, of State Junior Secondary School, Alomosho. For the senior secondary schools category, Akinmuleya Temiwunmi of Queens College, Yaba, took the first position, while
Adeshina Grace of Ansar-Udeen Senior Grammar School, Okota, came
second.
All the participants took part in the first stage of the competition which involved Essay competition writing. In the second stage, the participants were taking on guarded tours of the major agencies and department of the ministry involved in transport management and the final stage was the debate and presentation of poster on management the traffic situation in the state.
The 18 final contestants took their turns to tell the audience their strategies and proposal using colourful posters on ways in which motorists, pedestrians and the government can enhance traffic safety on the roads.
Qasim
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