Abuja faulty traffic lights: Motorists lament loss of man-hours, accidents

Vehicle owners and other road users in Abuja have expressed frustration over several faulty traffic lights that cause to gridlock and frequent accidents in several locations in the country’s capital city.

A week-long survey conducted by Daily Trust Saturday on the faulty traffic lights revealed how relevant authorities have neglected the traffic control equipment, with more developing similar faults, adding up to the existing ones.

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In most of the places visited, despite the exacerbating gridlock, no official traffic wardens was on site to aid traffic flow, especially at some strategic intersections of the capital city.

A motorist who spoke to Daily Trust Saturday said the malfunctioning of the traffic lights was making it difficult for people to meet up with their office hours, business meetings and other appointments.

This development has forced motorists and Good Samaritans to resort to volunteer wardens’ role to ease the traffic logjam in areas where the road users continually get stuck, sometimes for hours.

Musa Ramlan, a labourer, who operates at Chida Hotel junction, said he volunteered to be a warden at that intersection to ease congestion and reduce the number of accidents that frequently happen there. 

“I just decided to help. The constant gridlock is an eyesore and causes a lot of accidents here every day. Nobody is paying me, but I feel it is my duty as a good citizen. 

“This traffic light has been like this for more than seven months, and there has been no effort by the relevant authority to fix it,” he complained. 

Another volunteer warden at the Utako market area, Master Benedict, said he became a volunteer warden after he was sacked by a private security company he worked with.

“The junction is always rowdy. The traffic lights have not been working and no official wardens were assigned to take care of the traffic. I see this as an opportunity to make ends meet. Good Samaritans are now helping me to at least feed myself,” he said. 

From Jabi to Utako, Maitama, Wuse II, Central Area and some other zones within the city, Daily Trust Saturday counted over 50 faulty traffic lights, with some of them completely removed from the pole. 

Between Jabi and Utako, out of the 15 traffic lights our reporter counted, nine were discovered to be faulty, two completely removed, while only four were in perfect working conditions.

A taxi driver, Bashir Muhammad, who shuttles between Jabi Primary School junction to Wuse market, said the traffic lights had not been working for many months. 

“A day hardly passes without a record of four to five accidents at various junctions this way. Yesterday, two cars collided here. Although there was no loss of life, one of the drivers suffered serious injury. Such traffic accidents don’t usually cause death, but the cars get damaged,” he said.

A motorist, Mr Salem, who works in one of the government agencies along Chida junction, Utako, said the malfunction of the traffic lights usually delayed him from arriving at work on time due to gridlock. 

“A week before Christmas, I nearly had a head-on collision with an upcoming vehicle from Jabi park direction. There was a lot of hold up and almost everyone was trying to get away from the gridlock one way or another.  

“People incur losses here daily. The traffic lights have been like this for almost six months. Government needs to be serious and do something about it,” he said. 

At the OAU Quarters junction at Maitama, Ndubisi Micheal complained that it’s now difficult for people to schedule meetings at various locations of the town. 

He said, “Before now, one could schedule two, three or even four meetings at different places within Abuja, but now, the city is gradually becoming as rowdy as Lagos, where one can hardly achieve two meetings in a day. 

“It is high time government became proactive in terms of improving the traffic control system and fully launch a light train to ease the congestion.” 

Driving through Maitama to Wuse II, our reporter observed that 14 out of 21 traffic lights he counted were faulty. An official traffic warden was, however, seen at Tulip International College junction and Adetokunbo Ademola, by AP junction.

Also, from Central Area to Area 1, Area 7 and other zones within the capital city, majority of the traffic lights seen by our reporter were not functioning.

When our reporter stopped counting faulty streetlights at the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) junction, he had seen over 50 of them. The one on the rowdy intersection was completely removed.

Another cab driver, Silas Emmanuel, who was interviewed along the road, recalled how faulty traffic/streetlights triggered lots of accidents during the rainy season. 

He said that whenever there was a heavy downpour, multiple accidents would happen because visibility would poor as traffic/streetlights are not working, especially during the rush hour and at night. 

“During peak hours you will see multiple accidents around some busy junctions like Area I roundabout, Berger bridge, Jabi market,  Jabi Upstair, Catholic Church junction and so on because the traffic lights are either removed or not working, and no traffic warden to control vehicular movement,” he said. 

Motorists have also complained of dark streets as a result of faulty streetlights, saying they provide hideouts for criminals, as well as poor visibility, which causes collisions as speeding drivers try to avoid red spots. 

In these black spots, according to some drivers, criminals lurk around at night to pounce on unsuspecting victims and rob them of their possessions.

Some motorists told Daily Trust Saturday that in some red spots within the Abuja city centre, one dares not stop to fix a punctured tyre or engine problems when the places are deserted at night, except under the watch of security operatives.

A driver who fell victim around Jabi recounted a sordid incident that dispossessed him of a day’s pay.

“It was around 10:15pm when a passenger stopped me and said he was going to Wuse 11. As we started bargaining, three people came into the car and switched off the engine. 

“They dispossessed me of the day’s hard earned money, seized my handset and vanished into the dark street of Jabi Park. It is a very dangerous place at night without the streetlights,” he said. 

When contacted, the sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) command, Oga Ochi, said they were aware of the situation.

“You will agree with me that we tried to address the deficiency of traffic control in the city centre to a large extent. In most of the flash points, we deploy our men to ease traffic. 

“If you see the nature of my deployment within the city, it is more than the outlets. Traffic control is still a challenge, but we are trying our best. The police are equally helping,” he said.