Apapa gridlock: FRSC tasks personnel to be professional or get sacked

The Federal Road Safety Corps has warned its personnel deployed to manage the Apapa gridlock to shun corruption or be ready to face summary dismissal from service.

The spokesman of the service, Bisi Kazeem, gave this warning in Lagos, said, “Our officers and men are aware of the zero tolerance for corruption in FRSC that they don’t have to be involved in bribery and if they are caught, there are no two ways about it because there will be a federal disciplinary committee that will be set up and if they are found guilty, it is summary dismissal.

“That is why we still do surveillance on our own. We don’t leave the monitoring to the committee. We have a role to make sure that our men don’t take part in any corruption tendencies.”

Kazeem, who spoke while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after a meeting with other traffic law enforcement agencies in Lagos, said FRSC was working closely with the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency and other security agencies to clear the Apapa traffic congestion as there were ongoing efforts to ensure that port users and motorists plying the road did not encounter hiccups.

“We will ensure traffic is moving while work is going on. FRSC as a lead agency for traffic management will work with LASTMA to ensure that traffic control is maintained and not hindered.

“The clearance of the Apapa gridlock is a work in progress. A lot of work has been put in place. The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is superintending over it to ensure that all relevant agencies especially as it concerns traffic control are mobilised,” he reportedly said.

The FRSC spokesman commended the Nigerian Ports Authority for setting up the Lilypond truck transit park in Ijora, noting that it would go a long way in decongesting the port access road.

“The NPA has played a major role by creating the truck transit parks. The problems have always been with trucks with no job on the road but the new system is that truck not needed at the port are off the roads and when it is their turn, they come to the port and that will help remove the pressure from the road because only fewer trucks and tankers will be plying the road at a time. “So the congestion of trucks on the port access roads will be very minimal and no concentration of trucks to cause congestion or to weaken the road by staying days on a particular spot which is not suitable for road users, vehicles and the roads,” he added.

Road users had complained that the cause of the persistent gridlock was corruption on the part of law enforcement agencies put in charge of managing the traffic.

They accused the officers of collecting bribe and allowing people to ply one way while others were on the queue.

Our correspondent confirmed this on a recent visit to Coconut end of the Tin Can Island seaport. Soldiers stationed under the bridge clearly watched as some boys demanded for monetary compensation from truck drivers before allowing them to pass.

“The soldiers are the ones sending them to collect the money,” one truck driver, Hakeem Afiz, told our correspondent.