Some residents and motorists in Lagos State have complained about the increasing abandonment of accident and detained vehicles in front of police stations and adjoining streets, saying it was now becoming a safe haven for criminals and causing gridlock.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos that criminals now used such abandoned vehicles to hide their weapons and attack unsuspecting public.
They also said that most often, the vehicles parked indiscriminately contributed immensely to traffic problems.
A banker, Mr Adewale Akinbami who resides at Meiran, a suburb of Lagos, said the abandoned vehicles parked in front of Meiran Police Station had made it difficult for motorists to see oncoming vehicles.
“You know Meiran Police Station is located at a junction, this junction sometimes get jammed with traffic due to impatient drivers and their inability to see oncoming vehicles.
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“This same junction has a bus-stop, coupled with a police check point which sometimes narrow the road and makes free movement difficult,’’ he said.
Mrs Hussein, a trader at Oke-Odo market, said that the vehicles at Oke-Odo Police Post made it difficult for motorists and pedestrians to access the market.
“These vehicles make it difficult for other vehicles to come in and people walking also avoid the route for fear of being harassed by hoodlums whenever it’s getting dark,” she said.
A trader at Computer Village, Ikeja, who asked for anonymity also complained about the vehicles being parked in front of the Police Station close to the Ikeja Local Government office.
“I don’t understand why there are always abandoned vehicles in front of police stations. This road is not even big enough for cars and they are making it smaller with the abandoned vehicles.
“These vehicles can be easily used as hideouts for criminals waiting to descend on people coming from or going to work. A thing like this is not good for commercial area like this,” he said.
Mr Olusegun Oguntade, a taxi driver at Abbatoir Market, Oko-Oba, said vehicles parked close to Abbatoir Police Station affected easy movement of vehicles coming to and leaving the market.
“Although the police station has limited space but the policemen can also reduce and monitor how vehicles are parked close to their office, especially those that seem to be abandoned,” he added.
Mr Fatai Ajala, also a taxi driver complained about the Alakara Police Station along Agege Motor road, Mushin.
According to him, trucks are usually parked in front of the police station which narrowed the road and caused accident as the trucks usually do not have reflectors.
“We know the police station has a small compound and we cannot stop the police from doing their job. I will suggest that a vehicle should not be allowed to park here, especially overnight.
“Remember it was a truck parked in front of this station that a popular Nigerian musician drove into and lost his life in April 2010,” he said.
At Gowon Estate Police Station, NAN observed that many vehicles were also abandoned in front of the police station.
Other road users find it difficult to move due to the road being narrowed by the vehicles as they disturbed easy flow of traffic.
The situation is more worrisome within the estate as unconfirmed reports have it that many residents had been robbed because criminals turned the abandoned vehicles to hideouts.
Alhaji Isa Jimoh, a resident who spoke to NAN, called on the relevant security agencies to come to the aid of helpless residents.
Jimoh, however, suggested regular raiding to curtail many vehicles being abandoned within the estate.
The Lagos State Police Command’s spokesperson, DSP Bala Elkana, when contacted, however, said there was a procedure to follow before the police would release accidented vehicles to the owners.
According to him, there is an investigation process which involves the police and Vehicle Inspection Officials (VIO) after which a report will be produced as evidence in court.
“The procedure is that VIOs need to inspect the accident vehicles and provide reports because these are documents to tender in court as evidence to what happened.
“It is part of the investigation process because when there is an accident, you have to mark the point of impact; you have to know who is right and who is wrong. These are evidence you need to get.
“It is not just to conclude investigation on vehicle because once we do our own part, the VIO will also come and inspect the whole of the vehicle and find out the cause of the accident.
“Once that is concluded, we charge the matter to court where the court may give order for the vehicle to be released to the owner,” Elkana told NAN.
“If you look at the police stations too, we don’t have much space and Lagos has large volume of traffic. There are lots of vehicles in Lagos, so the volume of accident will be high.
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“Imagine us battling with space all over and we cannot say because there is not enough space, we let it go without investigation, then definitely there will be impunity in Lagos.”
He, however, dismissed the idea of taking pictures of vehicles involved in accident and presenting the pictures as evidence in court so that the vehicles could be quickly released to the owners.
“How can pictures help in the examination of whether a vehicle’s brakes are good. It is not just to show picture in court, you need to find out, what is the cause of the accident. Is it brake failure, is it defective headlamp?
“You can’t just take pictures and let the vehicle go. How do you detect what caused the accident or who is at fault. So, the vehicles have to be examined,” he added.
NAN reports that the former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, had in November 2014, while handing over an ICT Resource Centre to the Area C Command of the Nigeria Police in Lagos, said the ICT Centre would help the police to decongest the stations of exhibits, especially abandoned vehicles, thereby improving the image and outlook of police stations.
He said that records of all exhibits in the police stations would be captured and stored in the computers’ database for ease of access and retrieval of relevant exhibits for effective prosecution of all cases.
“With this initiative, there will be no need to keep accident vehicles in the police offices. Once the data is taken, accident vehicles should be released to the owners on bond.
“The environment where police operate goes a long way in determining the quality of service you get. So, this will help to decongest the stations,” he said. (NAN)