By Victor Otigbu
TO some people, mere mention of Hell fills them with grief or relief depending on which side of the divide you belong. While to some, there is nothing like Hell not to mention Heaven. This also depends on one’s faith.

But to Lagos motorists, the fear of officials of the state traffic agency, Lagos State Transport Management Authority, LASTMA, saves one from going to Hell’s gate. But the roads in which these officials operate can only be described as roads to Hell.

In Lagos, traffic snarl seems to be the unending cry of  commuters, not minding the fact that the federal and state governments have a number of agencies set up to monitor, regulate and apprehend traffic offenders.

Stories abound about the excesses of LASTMA officials in every part of the state. Instead of trained traffic officials, what we have is corrupt, incompetent and illiterate officials lacking in traffic management. The only thing they seem to understand about traffic management is towing of vehicles. And if you question or dare complain, your fine increases.

In some areas, the police collaborate with the LASTMA officials to extort. What manner of internally generated revenue that goes into private purses! Out of curiosity, I’ve interacted with some officials of LASTMA who reside in my area and some other parts of the state. Suffice to say that the only motivation for work is the amount of money they deposit into various bank accounts the next day. What about the unending weekends of Hell with its chaotic traffic gridlock caused by Owambe parties.

To really understand the kind of pain these activities unleash on helpless motorists, this headline will help us to grapple with the situation better. Lagosians spend N36 billion on Owambe annually —Fashola. Headline of a story published by Vanguard Newspapers on September 23, 2013. The type of road blockade caused by these parties depend on who is organising it.

From royal fathers to popular politicians, bankers, industrialists, artisans, even agberos or alayes, the story is same everywhere. LASTMA officials help those organising the parties to control traffic leaving the roads to the mercy of fake LASTMA officials known as LASTMA plus.

This can be attested to by one of our editors who hand an encounter with them one good Sunday evening on his way to work, at the notorious Mile 2 bus stop. He paid some amount to a fake LASTMA official who went by the name Commander, to bail himself and his car. They even threatened to tow his car, but to where? Under Governor Babatunde Fashola, new rules have emerged on traffic and road usage and so also have new problems.

As commuting in Lagos becomes very, very miserable, traffic agents are growing fatter and richer. People spend about three hours daily to commute from Ikorodu to Ketu and vice versa, a journey that ordinarily takes about 30 minutes. Why? Reconstruction of road.

Roads to Hell don’t expire but Lagos roads seem to have expired at the same time going by the multitude and magnitude of reconstruction projects scattered all over the state. The anguish is now badly compounded by high rate of commercial activities on the road, as traders annex the entire road by displaying all manner of goods.

How about the ever growing ‘go slow’ bandits who attack motorists, robbing them of their belongings in traffic gridlocks under the watchful eyes of LASTMA and police officers at various hot spots all over the state.

Many Vanguard staff have fallen victims of these hoodlums along Mile 2, Apapa Road. Worse still, the re-construction of roads have made it easier for criminals to have a field day by unleashing terror on motorists stuck in the traffic. It had been severally revealed that some commercial motorists and street traders also connive with the hoodlums to carry out their nefarious activities both in daylight and at night.

This is in spite of the heavy presence of combined teams of armed security personnel. But in all this, how can someone leave his office at Apapa, at about 5:30p.m., and still get home by 11p.m.? No wonder my colleague once described his experience on the road as hell on earth. So before you join the ever growing Lagos car owners, know that you might be driving towards Hell’s gate.