Monday, 27 June 2011
Abandoned cars removed at Ore-Meji, off Lagos - Ibadan Expressway Roads in the country have become death traps to users, owing to unfixed pot-holes and activities of men of the underworld. Constituting more hazards to road users and the environment, generally, are broken-down vehicles that litter our cities, especially highways. Environment Watch takes a look at the phenomenon and the need to address it urgently.
June 16 was not actually a good day for the corporate existence of Nigeria. It was the day a new dimension was introduced into the hollow quest for a change in the system of governance by the Boko Haram sect.
The group took the battle to the Abuja police headquarters – the base of the law enforcement agency in Nigeria. At the end of the mayhem, lives and property were destroyed in one fell swoop.
The following day, characateristic of the Nigerian government where no action is taken on pertinent issues until the damage is done, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, was quoted to have issued an order that all abandoned vehicles be evacuated from all police stations, nationwide.
But beyond the police stations, what happens to countless abandoned vehicles that litter our highways, major and minor roads of cities and villages constituting great hazards to the environment?
Nature and types of abandoned vehicles
On major roads, abandoned vehicles are visible. There is hardly any street without one. They are usually parked by roadsides including highways such as the Lagos/Ibadan expressway. In some cases, petrol and cement trucks, some with detached heads, are found by median strips and road sides. Some have their rear potruding from the bush, to the peril of road users. Petrol tankers, after falling victim of fire accidents, are hardly removed from the spots by their owners. Perhaps, they are more concerned about the content than the container!
On minor roads within cities, rickety commercial taxis are common sights. Most are crawling coffins. Even in remote villages where there are no good roads they would suffer rejection.
Owners of such abandoned cars and buses have cultivated the habit of leaving ‘carcases’ of their worn-out vehicles on the streets.
Investigations reveal that some of the abandoned vehicles were imported into the country and left where they are for some years. They are neither bought nor removed.
Ismaila Abu, resident of a slum in Okene, would have no blame apportioned to abandoned vehicle owners. “Where do you expect them to dump the ‘refuse?’ The only way to go about it, is park it somewhere and pretend you never owned it,” middle-aged Abu stated.
The situation is the same in Lagos, although with much effort being put into eradicating the problem. Some of these broken-down vehicles have broken windscreens, foreign plate numbers, some harbour wastes such as disused tyres and old bumpers.
In Ibadan, most roads (of both major and minor streets) are freely littered with disused cars and buses. Between Ibadan toll gate and Ojo expressway for instance, the number of abandoned trucks and other vehicles is alarming as the situation is causing lots of havoc.
The Akure/Ilesa road is grimed with carnaged luxury buses, articulated vehicles, buses and cars, all abandoned at median strips or the two sides of the expressway.
Risks and hazards
Abandoned vehicles cause both environmental and human hazards in great magnitudes. Stories abound on accidents that resulted from vehicles parked by road sides of highways.
Accidents and traffic gridlocks
Last year, a pastor of a fast-growing pentecostal church, together with his family of six, was travelling to Lagos for an annual one-week programme of the church. As they came near Ile-Ife on the highway, the vehicle ran into a truck abandoned by the road side.
The incident claimed the lives of the family of seven. They were crushed beyond recognition. It is believed that there is no week lives are not cut short through indiscrimate abandonment of vehicles on road sides.
Ibadan is notorious for narrow roads, some of which can hardly occupy two vehicles at a time. Yet, with inpunity, vehicles are usually parked and abandoned on these same narrow ways, thereby causing traffic obstruction and accidents.
The University of Ibadan/Agbowo Express road is notorious for its narrowness. Yet, vehicles are abandoned, hindering free traffic flow in the process.
Filths and grasses
Abandoned vehicles are avenues for heaping up refuse which constitute environmental challenges to the society. Nearby residents and road users see them as refuse bins where they can discard their wastes.
So, it is common to see commuters throwing banana peels and ‘pure’ water sachets in abandoned vehicles. Residents turn them to ready dump sites, where all sorts of rubbish are thrown.
“ You can see that grasses have grown around many of these broken-down vehicles, which indicates that the owners do not care any longer,” Richards Asuquo, a university student stated.
Abode for miscreants and lunatics, others
Most abandoned vehicles are homes to the homeless such as the mentally ill. They are off in the morning and return at dusk to pass the night. This is common along express ways and within cities and towns.
Some miscreants such as street urchins take turn to utilise the facility in carrying out their nefarious activities. They even lay siege in abandoned vehicles to rape girl-hawkers. They also serve as hide-outs for criminals.
Broken-down vehicles, during fire outbreak, could aggravate the spread of fire such that lives and property could be endangered. They pose more risk during the dry season.
Abandoned vehicles in the neighbourhood could be home to reptiles and other dangerous animals which may portend danger to residents of that area. This is common in villages and slums in cities like Lagos and Ibadan.
Abandoned vehicles are an eyesore on the expressway and streets and they are even as bad as pot-holes and craters on the road. “They deface the beauty of the environment and make everywhere so ugly,” Omowumi Omoniyi, a civil servant, observed.
Danger to human lives
Human lives are greatly endangered by broken-down vehicles as they narrow the space on roads and force pedestrians to make use of service lanes where they can easily be knocked down by motorists.
A resident of the Ijesha area in Lagos, where there are so many of such illegally parked vehicles, Ogibe Onyeka said:
“Indeed, they should all be towed away to the crushing facility established by the Lagos State government in Epe where they can be put to some use rather than allow them remain the danger and eyesore they constitute at present.”
In July 2009, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) issued a threat to owners of abandoned and broken-down vehicles and other objects disturbing the flow of traffic on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, to remove them or face prosecution and possible forfeiture, if they are evacuated by the FRSC. But today, greater obstructions are still being caused by abandoned vehicles with many lives put on the line despite the threat three years ago.
Taming the menace
It is, however heart-warming that the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Agency (OYTMA), under the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources in Oyo State, have begun the evacuation of abandoned vehicles from streets and major roads in the city. An official of the agency, who preferred not to be mentioned, told Environment Watch that a fine has been placed on every towed abandoned vehicle which the owner who wishes to recover his vehicle, must pay before being allowed to do so.
However for an effective job to be done, there should be a synergy among the Ministry of Environment at federal, state and local levels, the FRSC and other agencies in charge of environment to checkmate the reckless abandonment of vehicles on roads.
The existing laws guiding road maintenance should be ugraded and applied where necessary. Efforts should be made to find a way of replacing rickety commercial vehicles by government through soft loans, since the primary essence of governance is to make life comfortable for the people.
The government should also provide a means of recycling some of the components of these abandoned vehicles as it is done in advanced countries.
Through community efforts, abandoned vehicles should be taken away from residential areas to improve the quality of life.
The populace should be enlightened on hazards associated with abandoning vehicles beside homes and road sides.
The group took the battle to the Abuja police headquarters – the base of the law enforcement agency in Nigeria. At the end of the mayhem, lives and property were destroyed in one fell swoop.
The following day, characateristic of the Nigerian government where no action is taken on pertinent issues until the damage is done, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, was quoted to have issued an order that all abandoned vehicles be evacuated from all police stations, nationwide.
But beyond the police stations, what happens to countless abandoned vehicles that litter our highways, major and minor roads of cities and villages constituting great hazards to the environment?
Nature and types of abandoned vehicles
On major roads, abandoned vehicles are visible. There is hardly any street without one. They are usually parked by roadsides including highways such as the Lagos/Ibadan expressway. In some cases, petrol and cement trucks, some with detached heads, are found by median strips and road sides. Some have their rear potruding from the bush, to the peril of road users. Petrol tankers, after falling victim of fire accidents, are hardly removed from the spots by their owners. Perhaps, they are more concerned about the content than the container!
On minor roads within cities, rickety commercial taxis are common sights. Most are crawling coffins. Even in remote villages where there are no good roads they would suffer rejection.
Owners of such abandoned cars and buses have cultivated the habit of leaving ‘carcases’ of their worn-out vehicles on the streets.
Investigations reveal that some of the abandoned vehicles were imported into the country and left where they are for some years. They are neither bought nor removed.
Ismaila Abu, resident of a slum in Okene, would have no blame apportioned to abandoned vehicle owners. “Where do you expect them to dump the ‘refuse?’ The only way to go about it, is park it somewhere and pretend you never owned it,” middle-aged Abu stated.
The situation is the same in Lagos, although with much effort being put into eradicating the problem. Some of these broken-down vehicles have broken windscreens, foreign plate numbers, some harbour wastes such as disused tyres and old bumpers.
In Ibadan, most roads (of both major and minor streets) are freely littered with disused cars and buses. Between Ibadan toll gate and Ojo expressway for instance, the number of abandoned trucks and other vehicles is alarming as the situation is causing lots of havoc.
The Akure/Ilesa road is grimed with carnaged luxury buses, articulated vehicles, buses and cars, all abandoned at median strips or the two sides of the expressway.
Risks and hazards
Abandoned vehicles cause both environmental and human hazards in great magnitudes. Stories abound on accidents that resulted from vehicles parked by road sides of highways.
Accidents and traffic gridlocks
Last year, a pastor of a fast-growing pentecostal church, together with his family of six, was travelling to Lagos for an annual one-week programme of the church. As they came near Ile-Ife on the highway, the vehicle ran into a truck abandoned by the road side.
The incident claimed the lives of the family of seven. They were crushed beyond recognition. It is believed that there is no week lives are not cut short through indiscrimate abandonment of vehicles on road sides.
Ibadan is notorious for narrow roads, some of which can hardly occupy two vehicles at a time. Yet, with inpunity, vehicles are usually parked and abandoned on these same narrow ways, thereby causing traffic obstruction and accidents.
The University of Ibadan/Agbowo Express road is notorious for its narrowness. Yet, vehicles are abandoned, hindering free traffic flow in the process.
Filths and grasses
Abandoned vehicles are avenues for heaping up refuse which constitute environmental challenges to the society. Nearby residents and road users see them as refuse bins where they can discard their wastes.
So, it is common to see commuters throwing banana peels and ‘pure’ water sachets in abandoned vehicles. Residents turn them to ready dump sites, where all sorts of rubbish are thrown.
“ You can see that grasses have grown around many of these broken-down vehicles, which indicates that the owners do not care any longer,” Richards Asuquo, a university student stated.
Abode for miscreants and lunatics, others
Most abandoned vehicles are homes to the homeless such as the mentally ill. They are off in the morning and return at dusk to pass the night. This is common along express ways and within cities and towns.
Some miscreants such as street urchins take turn to utilise the facility in carrying out their nefarious activities. They even lay siege in abandoned vehicles to rape girl-hawkers. They also serve as hide-outs for criminals.
Broken-down vehicles, during fire outbreak, could aggravate the spread of fire such that lives and property could be endangered. They pose more risk during the dry season.
Abandoned vehicles in the neighbourhood could be home to reptiles and other dangerous animals which may portend danger to residents of that area. This is common in villages and slums in cities like Lagos and Ibadan.
Abandoned vehicles are an eyesore on the expressway and streets and they are even as bad as pot-holes and craters on the road. “They deface the beauty of the environment and make everywhere so ugly,” Omowumi Omoniyi, a civil servant, observed.
Danger to human lives
Human lives are greatly endangered by broken-down vehicles as they narrow the space on roads and force pedestrians to make use of service lanes where they can easily be knocked down by motorists.
A resident of the Ijesha area in Lagos, where there are so many of such illegally parked vehicles, Ogibe Onyeka said:
“Indeed, they should all be towed away to the crushing facility established by the Lagos State government in Epe where they can be put to some use rather than allow them remain the danger and eyesore they constitute at present.”
In July 2009, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) issued a threat to owners of abandoned and broken-down vehicles and other objects disturbing the flow of traffic on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, to remove them or face prosecution and possible forfeiture, if they are evacuated by the FRSC. But today, greater obstructions are still being caused by abandoned vehicles with many lives put on the line despite the threat three years ago.
Taming the menace
It is, however heart-warming that the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Agency (OYTMA), under the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources in Oyo State, have begun the evacuation of abandoned vehicles from streets and major roads in the city. An official of the agency, who preferred not to be mentioned, told Environment Watch that a fine has been placed on every towed abandoned vehicle which the owner who wishes to recover his vehicle, must pay before being allowed to do so.
However for an effective job to be done, there should be a synergy among the Ministry of Environment at federal, state and local levels, the FRSC and other agencies in charge of environment to checkmate the reckless abandonment of vehicles on roads.
The existing laws guiding road maintenance should be ugraded and applied where necessary. Efforts should be made to find a way of replacing rickety commercial vehicles by government through soft loans, since the primary essence of governance is to make life comfortable for the people.
The government should also provide a means of recycling some of the components of these abandoned vehicles as it is done in advanced countries.
Through community efforts, abandoned vehicles should be taken away from residential areas to improve the quality of life.
The populace should be enlightened on hazards associated with abandoning vehicles beside homes and road sides.
A newly established professional parking company, V-Park Management Solutions Limited is currently in discussion with Government Authorities in Nigeria on the way forward.
Credit: Environment Watch (Nigeria).
Credit: Environment Watch (Nigeria).
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