The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit (Taskforce) and the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation have warned dredgers, truck drivers and others at Ado Odo, Badore, Ajah to desist from constituting traffic impediments for other roads users around the axis.
The Chairman, Lagos Taskforce, CSP Shola Jejeloye gave the warning on Wednesday during a joint traffic enforcement exercise with the officials of the Ministry of Transportation at Ago Egun, Ado Odo, Badore Ajah dredging site.
“We have not come to make an arrest but have come to make our intention known that we will not allow this place, Ago Egun (Badore dredging site) to become a banana republic where anything goes. If you check this axis to Badore extension with the convergence of large ferries and many shanties on the water, it has become a criminal hideout and security threat to residents in the area”, Jejeloye said.
The Taskforce Chairman also lamented the location of many sand dredgers, whose activities attract hundreds of trucks daily thereby causing a backlog of traffic to the main carriageway, adding that the traffic gridlock has a serious impact on residents of the axis who spend five hours and more for journeys that should normally take less than 45 minutes.
He decried the closeness of the dredging site of fewer than five kilometers to the main carriageway and described it as illegal, maintaining that the time has come for total enforcement which will be sustained until sanity returns to the corridor.
Commenting on the development, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation and Chairman of Traffic Management Enforcement Team, Mr. Oluwatoyin Fayinka, noted that the Ministry of Transportation had invited the dredgers and truck drivers to stakeholder-meetings where guidelines for their operations were mutually agreed and signed.
He stated that the recalcitrant attitude of the dredgers and their ‘truck driver’ customers has led to the State Government’s decision to wield the big stick of enforcement, saying “This operation has become expedient because of the impunity of truck drivers, who at times block one lane permanently out of the two available, leaving only one for other motorists to use. We are not going to allow this charade to continue, it is totally absurd and unreasonable”, he disclosed.
The Special Adviser gave an assurance that the reports of the enforcement tour of the axis will be further evaluated for a better reappraisal for the next line of action which may include sealing off the dredging activities in the axis.
