ONCE upon a time, all one needed to drive in Lagos metropolis was a moderate experience and, for majority of road users, an expired or fake driver’s licence. That era may have, as well become history, as a new order seems to be evolving.

And this is a fall-out from the new traffic regulations being implemented by agencies of Lagos State and Federal Government. But the implementation could smear the expected gains of the traffic law.

Beside the Okota-Surulere Link Bridge, there is a park jointly operated by the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA) and the Police Force. Road users, who breach driving rules, are simply ‘ambushed’ and dragged into the park, which used to serve as a construction site of the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC), and ‘charges’ are finally read to offenders.

Normally, the public officers, who have mastered the act of the trade, give an offender a lecture on the weight of the law he or she has broken. The person is also informed that besides the fine, he or she could spend weeks processing tax clearance to take possession of his or her impounded vehicles, which at the point of collection, could have attracted demurrage.

The advice or warning, which sounds more like threat, prepares the ground for the real negotiation. Of course, at this point the ‘officers’ wait on their victims to plead for help. The usual response to such plea is: “How do you want me to help you?”

That lays basis for bargain, which lasts for as long as the presumed offender is unwilling to accept that the offence is a costly one.

Interestingly, the men in uniforms are always willing to help because the law gives room for  “discretions since not everyone will be booked.”

A convenient starting point, which has become the stock of the trade, is asking the lawbreaker to give a half of the fine, go away and ‘sin no more’.

On May 15, The Guardian spent an hour with the supposed traffic team at Cele. Within the period, about 12 vehicles whose drivers violated seat belt rule were impounded. Except for a Toyota van whose driver could not raise the amount he was asked to pay all offenders were allowed to go after they had paid ‘settlement’ fee ranging from N5,000 to N10,000.

THOSE who attempt to drive beyond the gate only do so at their own peril, as they are ‘charged’ for obstruction. In a worst case scenario, a van positioned at the end of the street, tows the ‘stubborn vehicle away.’ Those who allow situation to degenerate to that extent risk paying the cost of towing besides ‘settlement’ for the original offence.

The team operating in the area is what one could describe as seat belt squad. They charge as much as N10,000 for the service of towing van alone while the victim also pays for failure to fasten seat belt. Then, there is another compulsory N2,000 an offender pays; the police call it gate fee.

It is what every offender that is not smart enough to have settled before his vehicle enters the yard pays. Whether the tyres of the vehicle involved are deflated or not, every offenders pays ‘vulcaniser fee’, which is N200.

In tough cases, offenders pay as much as N20,000 each to regain their vehicles. Once a vehicle is steered into the vast premises, its key is handed over to a tout who does not seem to be part of the operation. He disappears with the key and only resurfaces when every kobo is paid.

The three Police officers who were part of the Cele team on May 15 cleverly distanced themselves from the ‘negotiation and extortion’ phases of the operation. When approached, one of them said they risked being reported to their boss if they meddled with the discussion. The LASTMA representatives did all the threats, negotiations and collections.

According to a resident close to the park, these ‘extortionists’ make over N200,000 from the spot daily, which is shared by all including ‘their supervisors’.

Perhaps, a team of the Vehicle Inspection Unit (VIO) operating at Mile 2 is more dreadful to road users. The unit is supposed to rid the road of unworthy vehicles, but the Mile 2 team, in a clandestine manner, picks up vehicles coming from Badagry axis for negotiation.

In a particular case on April 29, a Volkswagen Golf 3 car was impounded for plying on the federal road with expired vehicles documents. The owner paid N8,000 besides gate and vulcaniser’s charge before he left with the vehicle.

While fake drivers’ licences are on the increase, it has become extremely difficult to obtain the card in Lagos State.

About two years ago, there was a stalemate over the issuance, as the state government and Federal authorities were neck deep in words of wit on whose authority it was to give the licence.

Though this has been sorted out, those who paid for the licence in 2011 have still not got their cards, just as VIO officials insist that licences’ issued in 2010 and 2011 when the crisis was on would have expired.

The argument, therefore, is that applicants, who paid back then, are expected to make fresh payment to obtain the card. And it takes forever to process fresh licence unless an applicant is ready to pay extra for what is considered ‘Urgent Processing’.

In many cases, it cost each applicant N15,000, if he wants to get the important card within a week or two. Otherwise, an average applicant will still wait for upward of three or more months.

A driver with a fake drivers’ license paid N6,000 to avoid legal fine. They operate like the LASTMA point at Cele except that the gate charge is N500 while Vulcaniser collects N400.

A particular victim said he opted for a fake licence because he could not continue to visit VIO office at Ojodu Berger, on the outskirts of Lagos, to renew temporal permit given to him every six months. He said he has not been able to obtain the licence three years after payment.

“This is the problem I wanted to avoid when I went to pay for genuine licence. I paid about three years ago, but I have not even been called for photograph. Every six months, I have to go for a stamp to renew the temporal permit. When somebody asked me to come and do it for N5,000, I simply gave him the money. But I have to pay about N7,000 now for a fault that is not entirely mine,” he lamented.

The Guardian gathered that a member of the team is specially detailed to brainwash offenders to timely cooperation and compromise so that the garage could accommodate more targets.

At the popular Mile Two Garage, the name Rotimi rings a bell. Every tout, market woman, trader and security officer knows the short, shabbily dressed ‘terror’. His job specification at the park is to collect keys of seized vehicles, order vulcanisers to deflate their tyres, negotiate fees with victims and free vehicles whose owners have ‘settled’.

He gets instruction from the VIO men, who pretend they are not aware of what transpires after vehicles are brought into the park, and implement the instruction to the letter.

Rotimi, who has no official relationship with VIO, cuts the character of a bully and rogue. He abrasively tells victims what they will pay to get their vehicles released and walk away. Pleas that do not come from his ‘bosses’, who tactically distance themselves from the offenders, fall on the deaf ears of stubborn Rotimi.

By 1pm on April 29, Rotimi’s record of impounded vehicles had filled two pages of long notebook, with each owner paying an average of N7, 000 to get back his or her car. The case of a particular couple was quite pathetic. The man wanted his wife to go home while he sorted out his trouble with the ‘lord’ of the park. But there was a snag, the key of their apartment in Okota was fastened to the car key that was labeled and kept in Rotimi’s student bag. And Rotimi insisted no key would be removed from the bunch until the owner was ready to claim his car.

Drivers’ Licence Racket On Gbagada Treasure Island

By Gbenga Akinfenwa

DAWN breaks on the complex of Gbagada Licensing Office to reveal a long queue. The front of the office cuts the picture of a mini-market with customers: People are bargaining and scurrying past one another. Some are even rooted to a spot in an attempt to ensure they are attended to.

But these are not customers. They are some of the few, who have turned the office to their new homes. Except perhaps, they don’t take their bath their. Perhaps, if they do, it will be better, as it will reduce the offensive body odour that ooze out from the queues.

Located inside the Lagos State Social Welfare office, Somolu, Lagos, the place has become a market square for buyers and sellers of drivers’ licence.

This Thursday morning, the number of people at the office was not envisaged. However, little by little, as time ticked, the length grew. By afternoon, it had become uncomfortably long. It was not a palatable experience at all, as the applicants queued directly under the scorching sun.

As the reporter approached the queue, an official of VIO, waved him from his office. After some minutes of discussion, he discovered the serious graft and extortion going on there. He later opted to join others to get more information.

For about an hour, it was as if the queue was not moving because most of the ‘racketing’ officials were busy attending to applicants.

The reporter waited endlessly on the queue for over two hours to get a glimpse of the alleged extortion. It was the type of queue that could be called ‘bumper-to-bumper’, as everybody glued to one another.

Sensing the impossibility of getting to the front with the long queue, he gave up the idea of staying on the queue after hours of waiting under the scorching sun and hunger.

This reporter was recently given the contact of an FRSC, and when he called the official like a potential ‘customer’, the following conversation ensued:

“Good morning sir, I want to renew my Drivers license, what is the process?” he asked in a very careful manner.

“Come with your old drivers license, two passport photographs and N12, 000. I would be expecting you o,” the unsuspecting official responded.

When he didn’t receive any call from the reporter, he called back two hours later, but the reporter ignored the call.

SINCE the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) embarked on the campaign and issuance of new driver’s licence and vehicle number plate policy, which it stated would conform with international standards and help the nation build a history of all categories of people driving vehicles in the country, processing the license and getting it as at when due, has become a tall order.

Obtaining and renewing valid drivers’ licence has become more complicated than imagined across the length and breath of the country, going by the agony experienced by applicants on daily basis.

From the information gleaned, the official price is N6, 500 but the total money to be spent would sum up to N9, 500 or more. Many had applied long ago and were still waiting to get their licences. Since the new regime of drivers’ licence began in the country, it had become more difficult to get.

Without knowing it, the corps has created a trading post for touts and racketeers. Suddenly, the Gbagada Licence Office and others like it across the country have turned Treasure Island.

The boon, on the side, has opened new routes of making money for the officers and their cohorts, who pose as middlemen in the chain. According to sources, everybody involved makes more than double their yearly income in a few months. People take home N50,000 on a good day to.

THOUGH, it is claimed that the process involves payments being made to the states’ Board of Internal Revenue after which the necessary driving tests will be conducted by the Vehicle Inspection Officer (VIO), who will then forward the successful applications to FRSC to produce their licences, investigations revealed that it is not often the case.

Aside the unofficial levies paid by motorists, it was gathered that to get the license on time has now become an issue of highest bidder.

A young man, who gave his name as Dikenwuse Osanugo, told The Guardian that it took him three days to get his temporary licence at the rate of N12, 000. He said that this was possible because he went through one of the officials.

“The official price is N6, 350, but it is N15, 000 that they are collecting; because a friend gave me the phone number of one FRSC official, it was reduced to N12, 000,” Osanugo said.

According to him, “it takes some people five days to get their licences, and it also depends on who you are, people like police and others have easy access than us, it is an issue of man-know-man.”

Mad Comfort On Wheel

By Daniel Anazia

THE widespread poverty in the country has created a dislocated transport sector. This is evident in the poor quality of service. When The Guardian visited Ojota Motor Park, most of the vehicles were eyesores. Little or no proper ventilation. According to Engr. Niyi Ebitomiye, a passenger en route Ado-Ekiti, the vehicles should be suitable and comfortable for the passengers, but what do they get?

“Most of the vehicles in the park are not air-conditioned and the ones that have in-built cooling system are not working. You can’t just come to the park and say this is the bus or car I want to enter because they all take turn to load. And because they take turn, you don’t know the one that is air-conditioned and the one that is not,” he said.

On the poorly ventilated space wagons such as the Nissan Previa he boarded, he said, “it is not convenient for us as commuters because when there is traffic on the road, the vehicle becomes hot and there is no way for fresh air to come in or for the saturated air to go out because the windows are somehow sealed.”

Another respondent, Eyitayo Ayeni, said, “it is very difficult to open the windows as a result of the way the vehicle is designed.”

Ayeni added, “we don’t have a choice because it is what is available. We have adapted to it. In Nigeria, we easily accept anything given to us, and when we have a say, it does not in anyway count because the vehicle owners only care about their money. It would have been better appreciated if there were alternative.”

He continued, “if government provides alternative, it is just for a period of time because maintenance is not our culture. We don’t always maintain government utilities. And because the private operators maintain their vehicles, you can’t dictate to them what to do; rather they dictate to passengers.”

On the safety regulation by Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Julius Adekunle, a commercial bus driver, said, “the commission has given the rules and regulations which to a large extent are being implemented. However, some of the Corp Marshals are performing below the standard required of them as safety officers. They will see overloaded vehicle and flag it down, and after being compromised, they will let go.”

According to FRSC, for effective implementation of the Road Transport Safety Standardisation Scheme (RTSSS), all stakeholders, including the passengers, must cooperate.

To this end, the passengers have considerable as well as fundamental roles to play in the scheme implementation and this role cannot be over-emphasised.

The Scheme was created by law in the National Road Traffic Regulations (NRTR 2004) Section 115 made pursuant to Sections 5 and 10 (10) of the FRSC (Establishment) Act 2007.

This section provides for the establishment of safety units by all transport operators so as to bring professionalism into the industry, promote and develop rapid safe, efficient and convenient transportation system in the country.

While blaming passengers, Adekunle said, “we (commuters) are often the architects of our own problems. If a vehicle is not convenient, you can and should decide not to board it. But because a lot of us are always in a rush, we always end up inconveniencing ourselves. At public parks such as Ojota Central Park, the vehicles take turns to load and if you decide not to board the loading vehicle and wait for another take turn, it will not leave until it is filled. This is loss of man hour, and considering the state of our roads, you will like to get to your destination.”

Mrs. Amarachi Moses, a mother travelling with her baby girl, said the overloading is more when it is night. “At day time, the drivers will maintain the normal number of passengers, but at night, they overload vehicle; both with goods and passengers. Aside from overloading, the fare is also higher at night. It is not convenient for me and my baby, but because we don’t have a choice, we just have to manage it.”

However, Kolawole, a driver in the park and owner of a Toyota Sienna space bus, said the space bus is more convenient when compared to the conventional buses and there is just a slight difference in the fares. “The advantage is that it is more spacious and convenient compared to a bus”, he said.

Designed to carry five passengers and a driver conveniently, the owners and drivers add two extra passengers to make it seven on board. This, Kolawole claimed, is approved by both the FRSC and the VIO.

“Seven passengers are authorised by both the Road Safety and VIO. And I always put on the air-conditioner from Lagos to wherever we are going. The transport price is not the same with non-A/C. The difference ranges between N200 — N1000 between the A/C and Non-A/C vehicles, depending on the route. For me, from Lagos to Ado, the difference is just N300 with my car.”