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LAGOS STATE, Nigeria — As the festive season draws near, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority has commenced a sensitisation exercise for drivers across the state.
This according to the authority would curb situations of road crashes during this period.
The exercise, organised by the Female Elite Corp of LASTMA, started with the team visiting parks and garages in the Ojota, Ketu and Mile 12 areas of the state with messages that centred on road safety and worthiness.
Speaking with newsmen, the agency’s General Manager, Olalekan Bakare-Oki, underscored the need for the sensitisation, adding that it was part of the agency’s effort to drive the economic growth of the state and to ensure a reduction in road crashes across the state.
Oki, who said the sensitization exercise would cut across five divisions of the states, encourage road users to adhere to safety precautions at all times.
He said, “Lagos State is a mobile economy that runs around the clock. Therefore, the role of transportation cannot be overemphasised. LASTMA, as saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the movement of goods and services across the state from Point A to Point B at a reasonable travel time, the onus lies on us to make sure that we make the road seamless and free at all times so that we can engender the economic growth of the state.
“It is essential, especially to road users and the motoring public, to ensure that they adhere strictly to traffic rules and regulations and equally prioritise safety at all times. This is the Female Elite Corps comprising female officers in LASTMA and they are taking the campaign to Lagosians. They will be visiting a series of parks and garages across the five divisions of the state.
“We will ensure we touch all aspects of the state, especially the commercial drivers and those who move people en masse outside and within the state. So many people would want to put their vehicles on the road, they should make sure that routine maintenance of their cars is done because safety is key. Life has no duplicate, we only have one life.”
He said the agency would also deploy its human and material resources to ensure a safer highway for the residents of the state.
“The whole idea is for the state to make sure that the inter-model and integrated transportation system is well utilised by Lagosians. This is our legitimate duty.
“We will make sure that we deploy men and resources, our men will be strategically positioned to make sure that the traffic moves at all times. All our equipment will be positioned in strategic places at all times,” he said.
Reacting, the Assistant General Secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Ojota Branch, Akeem Akintayo, said continuous orientation by LASTMA officials would aid reduction of road crashes among its members.
Akintayo said, “LASTMA has been coming here often to sensitise us over the years and we as leaders of the park also extend such training to our drivers, and so far, it has been effective because it has helped us to drastically reduce road crashes among our drivers.
“We see the traffic managers, policemen, officials of LASTMA and the Federal Road Safety Corps as our brothers because we must always collaborate for the safety of our roads.”
