Let Him Go! He is a Frustrated Man

Tony was driving home from work three days ago. He was driving a company’s car, which was an unbranded latest model of Toyota Avensis. When he reached the Agric junction, he was in the innermost lane and wanted to change to the outer lane when he was stopped from doing so by policemen on duty.  He was commanded to maintain his current lane till he reaches under the bridge and make a U-Turn. This is not what Tony intended to do. He wanted to go straight.

"But I'm going straight and I don't want to turn under the bridge" he tried to explain to the most senior of the police officers standing beside the road, a Deputy Superintendent of Police ((DSP). "Then you should have followed the outer or middle lane. Go and turn under the bridge, Mr. Man, and stop disturbing the flow of the traffic", the DSP shouted at him. Tony decided to stay put because to go and turn under the bridge meant going back half-way to where he was coming from. Besides, the portion of the road under the bridge is very deplorable. 


Soon other vehicles coming from behind Tony started skirting around him in order to drive past him. He was like that for almost five minutes when the police officer, who had moved away from him by this time, shouted to the one besides Tony’s car, "Let Him Go! He's a Frustrated Man." At this, the policeman left his position and Tony drove off not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

A Checking Too Many

It was a Saturday morning, and Tunde was driving to his office in Yaba, coming from Agege. When he reached Oba Akran at Ikeja, beside Guinness, he met a detachment of Policemen doing some checking. They flagged him and he stopped a few metres away from them. One of them, a Police Constable came over to him. He demanded for his driver's license which Tunde extracted from his purse and silently gave him, while Tunde remained sitting inside the car. Satisfied with that, he returned his driver's license and demanded for the vehicle's particulars. Tunde extracted this from the glove compartment of the car and handed them over without a word. Tunde, driving a brand new company's car, believes he doesn't have anything to fear when it comes to Police Checking.

"Where is your custom paper?" bellowed the Police Constable. "What? Do you expect me to have the custom papers?" Tunde was pissed off. "Look, I'm not the importer or owner. This is a company's car, so I don’t have it" he explained like one talking to a child. "Ok, where is your CMR?" demanded the police man. "What is CMR?" queriedTunde. "Since you don't have CMR, you better come and see my boss" declared the policeman, ignoring Tunde’s question, while pointing to a Police Sergeant chatting with another officer beside a patrol vehicle parked a few metres away. Tunde learnt later that CMR means Police Central Motor Registry.

Tunde did a quick thinking. These policemen will ruin his day if care is not taken. He has to do something fast. He got out and locked the car. He took a few steps to follow the policeman. He stopped and said, "Look, let me park my car well off the road. I don't want any trailer or tanker to run into it. The policeman agreed and waited for him. Tunde entered his car, and turned on the ignition. He engaged the central lock of the car, thereby locking all the doors of the car. He pulled out of the road and zoomed off. He stopped the car some safe metres away from the policeman, rolled down his side glass halfway, looked back at the astonished policeman, made faces at him, and zoomed off laughing like someone demented.

OGD Intervention

About this time last year, Ogun State Ministry of works’ men came with caterpillars and bulldozers to grade this road. This was broadcast live on the television, especially AIT, to draw attention of the public to what Ogun state government was doing at Ota. The workmen dubbed it as "OGD Intervention."  However, they failed to provide effective drainage for the road, which is actually the most important thing needed by this road. Now the road is completely unusable and totally abandoned by all vehicles. It is currently in a worse state than that of last year before the repairs.

This portion of road is called the Plaza junction, about 400 metres from Sango-Ota overhead bridge. If you are coming from the Lagos-Abeokuta old toll-gate, this road serves as an alternative road to Abeokuta if you want to avoid passing through the Sango-Ota junction, or you want to go straight to Ijoko or Agbado. This road is now completely impassable to any vehicle at all due to poor drainage.

Sango-Ota is an important part of Ogun state boasting of many companies that generate revenues for the state. This is apart from residents and small business owners that also contribute to the development of the area. Let Ogun state government focus more attention on Sango-Ota area and help to rehabilitate the major roads. This is an appeal to the Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD) administration.