In July, a golden thread weaved through a sun-soaked landscape at Sapon junction, Abeokuta North LGA. An Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) Mayor Taiwo felt a painful laceration on his sunbathed skin. Two cycles had collided, with him nearly sandwiched in the middle of the collision. He was trying to do the work of a traffic light, passing commuters in the wide expanse through a whistle. There, the unthinkable happened, leaving his left leg, terribly bruised and scarred forever. Blood oozed. The cut was deep. But the cyclists did not show a grain of empathy; they had been affected too.
Mayor Taiwo was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) at Idi-Aba, Ogun State, where his fate was hanged on sutures. “I am fine now but I still feel the pain,” the officer said depressingly when interviewed two weeks later. Intriguingly, such occurrences were part of the daily experience of traffic mayors and commuters at the 8-lane crossroad since May, 2024 when the crossroad’s regulatory traffic lights developed a fault and stopped functioning.
Several fatal accidents had let loose at the spot, leaving many affected survivors, either with disjointed bones or jagged skins. In August, Akeem Salako, an Abeokuta South LGA traffic mayor said that around January to April 2024, the traffic lights were normal so habitual that their work was only to observe commuters not obeying the traffic rules. “But since the lights got spoiled in May, we’re left with no choice but to pass them (commuters) by ourselves.”
Salako said they (traffic mayors) often use whistles to pass commuters and based on the fact that the road is a crossroad and it is very large, a whistle blown on one side leaves the commuters at the other side confusingly taking it as theirs. This frequently leads to unexpected collisions like that of Taiwo, which often causes fatal accidents. “About 8 people, I have particularly used my car to take to General Hospital after sustaining serious injuries as a result of the inoperable traffic lights,” Salako said in Yoruba dialect.
Multiple sources interviewed, ranging from traders and taxi drivers that are familiar with the crossroad and the traffic lights, condemned the failure of Ogun State Government, under Governor Dapo Abiodun to repair the traffic lights.
Traffic Mayor Victor Oladimeji who was nearly bruised by his boss for attending to our reporters, cited that; “last three months, we just got to work as usual and discovered that the traffic lights we left yesterday were no longer working. We called the engineer (he was unable to recall the name) in charge and he told us, “it is the two batteries that are faulty, after checking it.””
There are four traffic lights at Sapon junction in Abeokuta, serving commuters from all sides. These four only have one source of operation at the centre of the road to the north. This is where the two batteries Oladimeji was talking about are kept.
Mayor Oladimeji said the engineer told them each of the batteries cost ₦350,000 and that he will inform the “Honourable” about it. Asked who is the Honourable, Oladimeji could not fathom the identity of him.
“Less than a week, the engineer came back,” Oladimeji continued, “and told us that the contract to repair the traffic lights had already been given to another engineer and that new engineer said he didn’t have time.” Still Oladimeji and other traffic mayors could not provide names of the new engineer and the former one.
PIJAlance contacted the Ogun State Commissioner for Public Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Ade Akinsanya, multiple times on September 9. The commissioner did not answer the calls, rather he dismissively responded to send a “text” through SMS.
PIJAlance sent an SMS on the account of the unrepaired Sapon traffic lights. The Commissioner did not reply, neither answer to the calls placed on his phone. However, despite declining to speak with us, the following Monday, PIJAlance learnt that the traffic lights were repaired.
Editor’s Note: Dear Readers,
Following a three-month of incessant accidents, injuries, and the numerous complaints from commuters as a result of the non-functional traffic lights at the Sapon crossroads in Abeokuta South LGA of Ogun State, we tasked our Research and Investigation Desk (RID) reporter with uncovering why the traffic lights had been non-functional for three months. This investigation was commissioned on August 15, 2024, with fieldwork commencing on August 24. Our reporter’s final task was to secure an interview with the Ogun State Commissioner for Public Works, Engineer Ade Akinsanya. On September 9, after several unanswered calls and messages, Engr Akinsanya responded briefly via text, instructing our reporter to “send text.” Our reporter complied, providing a detailed account of the questions. However, as of the time of filing this report, the Commissioner had not responded further. Interestingly, the traffic lights were repaired just five days after our outreach to the Commissioner on September 9. While we suspect that this sudden action was taken to preempt our publication, we remain committed to our mission of driving positive change. In fact, we see this as a win for the community, aligning perfectly with our core vision of fostering development and community justice. Based on this premise, we believe it is essential to share the findings of our investigation. Our dedication to transparency and accountability remains unwavering.
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Enoch Oyedibu
Brazen Investigative Journalist, publisher and executive director, PIJAlance Magazine Limited.