Men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command and officials of Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), weekend arrested at least 109 persons for crossing the expressway at Ketu Bus Stop, along Ikorodu road, instead of using the pedestrian bridge. Among those arrested were 102 men and seven women.
According to Mr. Olatunji Disu, RRS Commander, the arrest is to instill discipline and ensure the use of pedestrian bridges in the state to prevent loss of lives on highways and ease the free-flow of traffic.
Lagos has over the years witnessed high rate of pedestrian deaths, as pedestrians often risk their lives dashing across busy highways rather than use the foot bridges provided across the state. Some point to the dilapidated state of some of these bridges as their reason for avoiding them. Seven people were killed in Kano in April when a pedestrian bridge collapsed.
While the arrest at Ketu was aimed at instilling discipline, as claimed by the RSS boss, some parts of Lagos needing pedestrian bridges have been without for years. An example is the point of crossing at Berger in the state. However, Governor Akinwumi Ambode had recently approved the construction of a bridge there.
“We have seen that Berger needs a foot bridge and immediately the engineers are going to go to work and we will make sure that we put something there. We don’t want any traffic on that highway, so we are already thinking of additional solutions to allow vehicles to extend outside of the highway. That’s an engineering work and it’s already been considered,” Ambode said in June.
