These challenges range from the need to provide adequate and affordable housing for residents, provide drinkable water, creation of employment opportunities, provision of motorable roads, maintain law and order, and also among others to protect lives and properties.
In order to carry out its responsibility of securing lives and properties of people living in Lagos, one thing that has continued to pose a challenge to this responsibility is the alarming rate disused or abandoned vehicles are flooding Lagos roads.
Only recently, Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa said the state has evacuated about 2000 abandoned vehicles within Lagos metropolis.
According to Opeifa, this evacuation was done “through the work of the Abandoned and Disused Committee and Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).
A survey carried out in Alimosho Local Government Area, through the Landlord Association of the Mosan-Akinogun area, revealed that there is an average of six disused vehicles in every street in the community.
As at 15th of March, 2014, a total of 84 vehicles were abandoned on the major road that links Iyana-Ipaja, Mosan, Abesan and Ayobo.
This translates to the fact that there was an average of 4 vehicles within every two bus stops in the area.
Alhaji Olaiya Moshood, 55, a civil servant at Alausa Secretariat, Lagos, opined that these disused vehicles are not only made up of private vehicles but also government owned vehicles and business trucks such as tankers, lorries and trailers.
He blamed these abandoned vehicles for the unnecessary traffic gridlocks and regular road accidents that are experienced everyday on Lagos roads.
“The earlier government makes a law that would prohibit people from abandoning their vehicles on the main roads, the better for all of us in this city,” Moshood stated.
Mr Babatunde Olanrewaju, 67, an estate agent and also a landlord in Lagos, narrated one of his past experiences to show how disused vehicles contribute to insecurity in the state.
“I was coming back from a social function one night around 11pm, and suddenly, I heard strange noise coming from one of the abandoned vehicles on my street.
“I silently hid behind one of the disused cars on the other side of the lane to ascertain what was going on.
“To my amazement, I saw three unknown men raping an unidentified lady inside one of the abandoned vehicles.
“The lady’s hands and mouth was tied with what I believed was a piece of cloth and she was forcefully screaming for help.
“When I could not hold the silence for long, then I screamed and instantly, the culprits dumped the girl and took to their heels.
“When other neighbours came out, no one could identify the lady as a resident in the area which means she was abducted from another area and brought to our street because of the ‘ready made crime haven’ that has been created for them,” he concluded.
A Police officer, who pleaded anonymity, also called on the state government and any other relevant federal government agencies to address the issue of abandoned vehicles on major highways as a matter of urgency.
Apart from causing traffic, accident and serving as a comfort zones for rapists, the policeman also said these abandoned vehicles are also being used as storehouse by armed robbers.
He recounted an incident that happened in Bariga, Lagos where some armed robbers drove into a street and started to offload guns and other weapons out of the car they came with into one of the piled-up disused cars on the street.
“Do we have to wait till when some faceless militant groups would detonate bombs inside these abandoned vehicles as it was done in some parts of the country in recent times,” the police officer queried.
However, when asked on what Lagos State government is doing to arrest the insecurity posed by these disused vehicles, Mr Opeifa stated that very soon they would move from street to street to identify and remove such vehicles with the help of the landlord association of respective areas.
He said the government is aware of the fact that such vehicles have not only become haven for criminals, but posse security risks.
He urged owners of such vehicles to personally remove them or risked them being impounded.
Mr Opeifa concluded that the government shall by all means ensure that vehicle parked on the road or street for the least of two days without prior notification of identity shall be towed and taken to the enforcement yard.
The commissioner also informed that plans are underway to issue license to all automobile dealers in the state to control the way auto dealers’ liters vehicles in every nook and crannies.
“All vehicle dealers in the state is meant to obtain operating license from the government, this will enable us checkmate the rate with which the dealers liter the state with vehicles,” he stated.
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