Ojuelegba mishap: Lagos Assembly Empathize with Surulere constituents

By Lanre Adesanya

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday commiserated with the victims of the recent fire incidents at Ojuelegba Bridge in Surulere Local Government of the state.

The house toed the path of empathy with concerned constituency and adversely affected constituents, sequel to the fully loaded petroluem tanker,which fell off the Ojuelegba Bridge thus causing an inferno which destroyed many houses and cars on Dec. 5.

The condolence followed a moved by Hon. Desmond Elliot Surulere I, seconded by Hon Rotimi Abiru Somolu II) on the floor of the Assembly during a matter of personal explanation.

The House expressed worries over the incessant loss of lives and properties due to the activities of tanker drivers at the Ojuelegba Bridge area of Lagos.

The lawmakers took turns to commiserate with the victims and called for drastic actions to end the menace.

Elliot urged the House to as a matter of urgency call on the Director General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr Fouad Oki to put necessary measures in place to forestall a recurrence.

The legislator stressed that without such adequate measures being in place, such   incident would repeat itself in a matter days.

In his view, Hon.Jude Idimogu Oshodi-Isolo II said, “one of the ways to halt the menace is for articulated vehicles to be stopped from plying the bridge outright.

“Rather they should be mandated to take the route underneath it, we cannot continue to lose lives and property to the carelessness of articulated vehicles and tankers.”

On his part, Hon.Tunde Braimoh Kosofe II called for the immediate fixing of weight barriers at the entrance of the bridge to prevent heavy vehicles such as trailers and tankers from plying the bridge.

Also speaking Hon. Sola Giwa Lagos Island II, who commiserate with the victims, argued that restricting the tankers from plying the bridges could cause more problems and security risks in some other areas.

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Giwa, however, urged that the state government needed to enforce relevant state traffic laws which mandate articulated vehicles to travel only at night in the state.

The lawmaker added that rail transportation would proffer long term solution to the menace of articulated vehicles and tankers.

Hon.Bisi Yusuff Alimosho I called for the attitudinal change by tanker drivers and stiffer penalty for wreckless driving of tanker drivers.

It will be recalled that prior to the latest incident at Ojuelegba, an articulated vehicle just few weeks back fell off the bridge and ended up crushing a number of people to death.