LASEMA to tanker drivers: Maintain your vehicles or face our wrath

Following the spate of recent incidences in Lagos, most prominent amongst which was that of September 20, 2019 when a tanker fully loaded with diesel fell around Berger axis, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency has issued what it called a final warning to drivers, owners and operators of trucks and articulated vehicles operating in the state.
According to Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyitolu, the DG/CEO of LASEMA, saddled with the responsibility of coordinating all other responders to emergency/disaster management in Lagos, this warning has become necessary in the light of recent occurrences of mechanical faults/break failures, which has incessantly led to blockade of Lagos roads that almost leaves the state and its economy paralysed. 
This, Oke-Osanyintolu said, is highly unacceptable for a metropolitan/cosmopolitan State that has surpassed mega city status and is progressing from a state with the fifth to the third largest economy in Africa. 
He said LASEMA is particularly concerned by the fact that statistical data has revealed a definite increase of avoidable road crash incidences caused by break failures due to negligence on the part of drivers and owners of trucks and articulated vehicles plying Lagos roads, which accommodates over 55 per cent of all registered vehicles in Nigeria, thus making Lagos roads, which not only serve its residents, domestic businesses and ports, but also international business partners, extremely sensitive to the slightest hitch on its roads.
These are the reasons, according to the LASEMA boss, why the government will not fold its arms and watch while things go awry.
Oke-Osanyintolu stated that henceforth, all ill maintained vehicles, especially trucks and articulated vehicles, their drivers or owners attempting to bring Lagos, its economy and the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led Administration to its knees due to their negligence, would be visited with the full wrath of the existing traffic laws of Lagos State. 
He said: “There are existing laws in Lagos State guiding the use of its roads, lay bye and maintenance of its medians as well damages to properties and especially to loss of lives due directly or indirectly to negligence of vehicle drivers, owners, or fleet operators within the territories of Lagos. 
“These laws still exist and will be fully invoked henceforth.”
Oke-Osanyintolu recalled the incidence of Friday, where a white coloured Mack truck with registration number KJA 911 XR, which suffered mechanical error/break failure on the Otedola Bridge outward Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, lost its trunk filled to capacity with 33,000 litres of AGO.
The trunk pulled out of the truck head, hit the road, before it upturned on its side, spilling its volatile content, which travelled for miles.
The DG said the distance covered by the rapid travel of the fallen tanker trunk would have exposed all humans, houses, businesses, moving and stationary vehicles from Berger area to everywhere the AGO has traveled to, but for the timely intervention of LASEMA and its coordination of all primary responders, one of which was the Lagos State Fire Service, which kept blanketing the fleeing AGO wherever it has streamed to, while members of the NPF, LNLC kept the crowd at bay and also from scooping, calling or receiving calls which can ignite the spilled AGO.
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and other primary responders who were on ground successfully recovered the upturned truck trunk fully loaded with
30,000 litres of AGO at about 8:30pm to effectively dismantle the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway traffic gridlock experienced that day by almost half of Lagos.
Looking back, the DG/CEO of LASEMA recalled that Saturday was no exception as another truck, DAF truck this time, with registration number GRR 175XA carrying steel and a truck with unknown registration number was involved in an accident on the Otedola bridge inward Berger.
The incident was reported at 9:50am and investigation revealed that the DAF truck driver lost control and rammed into a stationary truck as a result of reckless driving and over speeding. 
Dr. Oke-Osanyintolu, situating the various incidents, has advised truck owners with a strong warning to ensure that their vehicles were road worthy at all times before putting them on Lagos roads.