Lagos threatens to impose penalties on overloading trucks

THE Lagos State government has indicated its intention to impose penalties on vehicle dead weight violators, a law it said was previously in existence but no longer enforced.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Work and Infrastructure, Mrs Sramide Adeoye, an engineer, disclosed this at the weekend during the stakeholders meeting for the reconstruction of Oba Sekunmade Road, Ipakodo, in Ikorodu West LCDA

According to her, it has gotten to the point where people would have to tell themselves the truth of not opening their eyes and allow some unscrupulous fellows waste task payers monies used on road construction.

These set of people, she noted might not understand that their activities of overloading trucks impede on the sustainability of the roads.

To put an end to overloading of trucks, she maintained that Road Tax was the alternative.

She said “You wonder why when we construct roads, they get spoilt easily. It is because there are some people who will always have misnomer in their behaviours and they will always over load those vehicles.

“And because we don’t have a system to check these things, that culture has been lost and until we revive them for people to understand that when they say you shouldn’t carry more than 30 tonnes, you make sure you don’t carry more than that. That each time you carry that excess load, it attracts a penalty. That way, we don’t end up destroying our roads. That’s the kind of culture we are hoping to revive and bring back so that people can begin to check themselves.  When we do it, projects we commit with tax payers money can begin to last and serve us better.”

Speaking to stakeholders, she stated that Oba Sekumade Road would be constructed through Bond money and that it has a construction duration period of 14 months.

She said the road was contracted to Arab Contractors based on the company’s reliability, noting that two different failed attempts had been made to fix the road previously.

Speaking, Sekumade of Ipakodo, Oba Bashir Animashaun, advised that attention should be given to the maintenance of the drainage and that he has set up a mini committee that would monitor the progress of the road construction.

Majority Leader in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Sinai Agunbiade, pleaded with Arab Contractors to ensure that the inner roads that will serve as alternative routes to Ogolonto during the construction period is repaired.

He however emphasised that the contractor should endeavor to use artisans within the locality of the project.

The project coordinator, Lateef Somide, explained that the project was  a way of synchronizing road and water transportation. He assured that one side of the four-lane road would always be open to motorists while construction takes place.

“The road will be expanded to accommodate refuge lanes. Considering the axle load on the road, it will be a reinforced concrete rigid pavement road,” he said.

He solicited the cooperation of all stakeholders involved.

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