‘Malfunctioning traffic lights causing accidents in Bauchi’

From Ahmed Kaigama,Bauchi

Residents of Bauchi metropolis, the Bauchi state capital, have expressed displeasure over the malfunctioning of some traffic lights in some parts of the state metropolis, just as they said the situation has increased the rate of accidents in the metropolis

It was gathered that some motorists appealed to relevant authorities to effect repairs on the faulty traffic lights ,but that nothing was done about the situation.

Almost all the traffic lights in some parts of the state metropolis, like Wunti, Bank road, Kofar-Fada and Wunti Street have malfunctioned, thereby making the roads congested.

A resident, Musa Shall said the situation has caused motorists to lose their patience at the traffic lights, resulting to high rates of accidents, particularly at road junctions in the state.

The Secretary of the Bauchi State Commercial Motorcycle and Tricycle Riders Association, Shu’aibu Ibrahim, who spoke to newsmen over the development, lamented that the traffic lights in the state metropolis have not been functioning properly for over six months in the state and that nothing was done to address the situation.

He said, “Just last week, there was a serious accident along Wunti junction, where there is a traffic light was positioned. The most pathetic thing is that the police warders do not even do their jobs again, as you hardly see them controlling traffic. Sometimes you see them chatting with their colleagues, thereby ignoring their jobs”

“After the accident, members of our association volunteered to control the traffic to avert any ugly incident again. It was the Yellow Fever traffic warders came and started driving us away, saying it is not our job to control traffic. It took the Intervention of the DPO of G.R.A police station to settle the disputes between us”

Reacting to the development, The State Commissioner for Special Duties, Mohammed Damina said that the contractors who handled the project did not complete the work and attempts to get them to finished the job has not been successful.

According to him, “A bill for the implementation of enforcement of traffic law is before the state of House of Assembly. Once the Bill is passed into the law, we will enforce it on all motorists in the state and whoever defaults will be punished accordingly”.