Hawkers, passers-by escape death as container fall off truck in Apapa

Perhaps for share luck, it would have been a black Sunday for the residents of Apapa as a number of hawkers of various wares and passer-bys the ever busy Eleganza area inward the popular port city escaped death by the whisker when a fully loaded 20 feet container fell off the truck conveying it to an unknown location. 

The incident, which happened at the early hours of Sunday when Christians were rushing to their various places of worship, caused chaotic traffic snag for worshipers using the Commercial road to connect other access roads in the port city. 

Such incidents are commonplace around Apapa and Lagos environ with many losing their lives and vehicles while those lucky to be alive are seldom left with serious injuries. 

Efforts by the Lagos State government to address the ugly situation are mostly sabotage by officials of the state traffic management authority and officers of other security agencies who are hired as escorts and who prefers to allow container laden trucks to ply the roads of Lagos in day times in order to extort drivers of such trucks in apparent disregard for the law which stipulates that such vehicles and their contents should only move at night. 

 Officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) who arrived at the scene of the incident noted that the fallen container occupied about 60 percent of the road and impeded vehicular movement in and out of Apapa. 

An official who craved anonymity told our correspondent on the phone that “The LRU services of Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA) would be needed for its evacuation while our men and other sister agencies like FRSC, Police and NPA are on ground to control, manage and monitor traffic along the corridor,”