By Abdulwahab Abdulah

THE Coroner inquest into the cause of the ghastly  motor accident that occurred at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, by Otedola Estate on August 15, 2010, in which many lives were lost and property worth million of naira destroyed has provided an insight on  how precious lives are lost needlessly in the country,  especially on our roads.

The accident under investigation, though serious, is not the first time such accidents, would cheaply claim the lives of innocent Nigerians, due to human errors caused by ineptitude and some times, sheer man inhumanity to his fellow man. It is on record that within same period, the Otedola’s estate accident occurred, there were others which also claimed several lives, with little or no effort to unravel the causes, so as to  find a permanent solution to these human and material wastes.

From the accounts of those who witnessed the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway accident, it was obvious that the accident would not have occurred if not for the nuisance created by the men of the Nigeria police force in the name of fighting crime.

This piece will attempt to examine the roles of the police in such accidents and their attitude in cases, where their actions or inactions had led to the loss of innocent lives.

Over time, there are no doubts that some of the accidents that claimed large number of human lives  involved heavy duty utility vehicles, due to the difficulty they face when manoeuvring some terrains or points. By and large, it has also been established that some of these vehicles record little or no accident when there are no obstruction on the road.

Looking at the accident that occurred on that fateful day, there was no doubt that the spot at which the accident occurred was sloppy.  Eye witness accounts of the tragic multiple accidents,  accused the police of being untruthful about the cause of the crash.  Moments after the accident occurred, it was reported that in his response to the allegation that a trailer loaded with sugar rammed into a line of vehicles at a checkpoint mounted by the police on the road, the police spokesperson of the Lagos Command, Mr Frank Mba, denied the claim.

He said, : “The truth of the matter is that Lagos State Police Command has no checkpoint mounted on our highways and none could probably have been mounted on top of the bridge where the accident occurred.” Eye witnesses, who narrated what they saw before the accident took place that day in a newspaper reports,  placed the blame on the door steps of the police.

Taiwo Bakare, a commercial motorcyclist, who operates in front of the Otedola Millennium Estate, just a few metres from the scene of the accident, said he saw the police. “I was there (close to the bridge) when it happened,” he said. “There was a police checkpoint there after the bridge. They were stopping vehicles and checking what I don’t know until the accident happened. The trailer actually failed brake but was it not for the police that caused the hold-up there, the thing (the trailer) would have just moved up the hill and slowed down and stop on its own. It wouldn’t have hit anybody.  It was Sunday afternoon and you will not expect any holdup there without the police checkpoint.”

Florence Afam, a commuter in a bus that drove through the spot shortly before the accident, corroborated Bakare’s statement. “How can police say there was no hold-up there? Our bus just passed there like, less than five minutes before it happened,” she said. “They were there stopping vehicles and collecting money. They just stopped our bus, the driver gave them money and they let him pass. Who does not know that they mount check points along that road, especially around there? They are always causing hold up there.”

The evidences of some of the witnesses at the coroner inquest, sitting in Lagos also corroborated the claims above. The first witness, Mr. Isaac Ogene, who claimed to be a businessman from Delta State, told the court that he narrowly escaped from being caught in the inferno.

He said he was travelling to Delta State to deliver a car he bought for a customer, but noticed there was  traffic jam caused by the road block mounted by the police around Otedola Estate, by the Ojodu bridge.

He said, “I am a car dealer. That day,  I was travelling to Delta to deliver a car I bought for one of my customers. On approaching the area, after Alausa secretariat, I saw the hold up. I joined the traffic but was contemplating on what to do, and I suddenly heard an explosion from the scene  and there was fire, which spread everywhere.

“I had to jump out of my car to avoid the fire that caught up with every vehicle on the traffic. What we noticed was that the policemen, who  mounted road block on the road ran away from the scene of the incident,” he said.

Another witness, a commercial driver, Alfa Saka who lost his vehicle in the inferno, also attributed the cause of the accident to the ‘police road block’.

He said, “the impact of the collision was direct, bumper to boot, because it happened from the rear. It wasn’t the churches around that caused it because they were in service at the time of the incident. “If there had not been the unnecessary checkpoint,  the Dangote trailer would not have rammed some vehicles into the concrete bridge barrier causing an explosion, which killed many people  and injured others.”

Responding to questions under cross examinations, he said, “Road Safety officials are always on that part of the road every Sunday, to prevent converts of the various churches from parking on the road. The road is four lanes and the police are passing us (vehicles) one after the other.  “When I was approaching the Otedola Bridge, after the toll gate, I met the ‘hold up,’ I got down to observe what was happening in the front, when I noticed it was police check point, I went back to my car which has seven passengers and held the N40 note I intend giving to the police in my hand and suddenly,  I heard a blast and when I looked, a Dangote trailer had rammed into the vehicles on line behind me and immediately fire broke out,” he said.

It has also been discovered that the police check points across the country, apart from the danger it poses to Nigerians, as a result of vehicular accidents, poses threat to the nation’s economy. Recently, a research by a leading newspaper in the country, revealed that the police check points in the Badagry-Lagos Expressway, coupled with that of the Customs Services are becoming injurious to the nation’s economy.

The report said, “no fewer than 31 check points, comprising 24 manned by men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force, and nine posts by the Nigeria Customs Service were counted by our correspondent, who took a ride along the route. It was learnt that not less than N204.6million is realised monthly from these multiple checkpoints, as government officials benefit immensely from their continuous operations.

It was alleged that the huge pecuniary benefits from these checking points has made it difficult for their dismantling over the years. It was also gathered that as much as N9.9million is raked in daily from these illegal check points.

Also, investigation shows that out of an estimated 4,000 vehicles that ply the route daily, about 1,000 commercial vehicles is made to part with N200. However, some are made to part with N2,000 or N3,000, depending on the kind of goods they are carrying at the time of interception.

It was further revealed that while some few individuals are smiling to the bank daily, the nation’s economy is bleeding and the Nigerian masses are at the receiving end as the money collected from the traders are passed to them as final consumers.

With these developments, one would question the rationale behind the yearly ‘orders’ passed to the police commands by sitting Inspector General of Police  to end ‘road blocks’. The instructions have simply been ignored and only observed when a VIP is scheduled to pay a visit to the area or use the particularly road, while the country and its people, as usual suffer in the hands of these men on uniform, who exploit those they are paid to project and serve.
One would not rule out the role of road check by the police to curtail certain crimes, but it must not in the guise of solving a problem, create many more for the ordinary masses, who are always at the receiving end, hence the concerned authorities must take concrete steps to check the trend. The solution should include establishing safe and designated areas for police check points, and vehicles must be cleared off the road completely, before any check is carried out.

Also, there should  be road signs indicating that there is police check ahead and it should be not be the big woods and tires used to narrow the road to only one passing point.  This will definitely reduce traffic and carnage on our major roads.