Sunday was a day of anguish for travelers and other users of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as a fuel-laden tanker had an accident leading to the the cordoning off of traffic for more than 12 hours.
The incident happened in the early hours of Sunday, May 7, 2023 under the Ibafo pedestrian bridge, in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The traffic was cut off by the authorities so that there would not be a fire incident, especially as the tanker spilled fuel all over the road.
Residents claimed that some people scooped fuel from the accident scene shortly after it happened in the night before the police and road safety officials arrived in the morning.
The remaining fuel in the tanker was transloaded onto another tanker before a towing vehicle was used to move the accidented tanker off the very busy road.
People going to church and those traveling in both directions had a hellish time as there was a complete standstill of vehicular movement on the expressway for hours.
While the accident happened on the Ibadan-bound part of the expressway, the motorists who took one-way to avoid the logjam compounded the problem of those travelling inward Lagos.
Both sides of the express was locked down, while many people resorted to trekking to get to their destinations around the affected areas.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) spokesperson in Ogun, Florence Okpe, attributed the chaos that ensued to impatient drivers who took up to three lanes of the Lagos-bound traffic leaving only one lane to the motorists coming into Lagos.
Many of the travelers complained about the slow response of Ogun State to traffic incidents, as they pointed out that the incident happened at night and ought to have been cleared by the relevant authorities by the morning of Sunday.
If this had happened in Lagos, the accident would have been cleared promptly. But Ogun State is always slow to such emergencies” complained a motorist trekking towards Magboro from Ibafo on Sunday.
She argued that two hours was enough to take care of the crisis if the government was serious.
As of the time of filing this report, the backlog of the traffic was yet to clear.
