BY Duke Olabode Garbadeen
I will begin my writeup by trying to dissect the evil of lawlessness and irresponsibility in any given society.
What is law and order?
"A situation characterized by respect for and obedience to the rules of a society. By extension, law and order provides the foundation for a stable society, which allows people to lead productive lives, grow personally, and engage in commerce and other social activities which simply put, constitute social order".
Meanwhile, "social order are characterised by norms, rules, values, and standards etc".
Going by the aforementioned, there is no argument that a society that lacks law and order is a society heading for self-consumption. An ambience that is worse than a jungle.
That is exactly what played out in my beloved town epe last Monday where people's lives were cut short for no single fault of theirs.
That was a day when one of the fundamental human rights of certain citizens, 'right to life', were grossly violated with negligence and impunity inadvertently facilitated by undue compromise.
On this fateful black Monday, a particular Dangote truck was descending the oke mogos hill and according to reports, it headed straight to the newly constructed Ayetoro market having supposedly suffered break failure, with the speed of a lightening giving no one in view any space to escape.
Blood became water flowing freely from these innocent victims who left their different homes hale and hearty with the the hope of coming back later in the day including innocent students, traders, passersby who have their future laid out ahead of them with dreams and aspirations, ending up brutally devoured by a 'hungry truck' that went on rampage leaving them dead without heads and some without limbs, crushed almost beyond recognition, and having their beautiful hopes and aspirations crushed in one sudden sweep due to the negligence and impunity of certain characters.
One particular student was only identified by the big note strapped to his chest bearing his name. And another man who came to drop his wife at the market only for the wife to turn around shortly afterwards and found her hitherto bubbling husband lying dead in a ruin of his old self, soaked in blood.
We all have a right to live. Why should one soul deprived others of theirs? It's really not fair!
*My take on this!
1. NEGLIGENCE
The government is guilty of negligence on this matter both in terms of failure to provide laws or edicts that addresses issues as they arise or failure to enforce existing laws that are primarily meant to forestall incidences of this gory dimension.
For anybody who is familiar with the topography of a section of the epe township knows too well how hilly it is. Talking of oke oyinbo, oke oluyepo, oke odan, oke shade and the almighty oke mogos.
Right from childhood, many epe hills especially oke mogos had always been so difficult for heavy-laden trucks to climb or descend. Uncountable numbers of similar accidents that had occurred for same reasons. So many lives and valuable properties had been lost over and over again.
In this circumstance, government is expected to rise up above the challenge and proffer preventable solutions. Either to scale the hills down or to prevent heavy trucks from plying certain routes within the township.
If the latter option was difficult as goods have to pass to or through epe for its economic sustainability and also, if the former option is equally difficult to pursue because of the required sophisticated engineering works, solutions naturally emerged during the reign of Akinwunmi Ambode who thought it fit to construct a very standard world class ring-road that provided an alternative route for heavy vehicles to ply either going to epe or passing through it without having to climb or descend any hill.
I am talking of the Okeosho/Poka bypass. It is a perfect escape route for such peculiar vehicles. So if you are heading downsides epe with reference to heavy vehicles, you come in through T-Junction or through itoikin- epe road straight unto roundabout- Ayetoro enroute marina depending on exactly where you are going. If on the other hand you are going upsides epe or neighbouring communities such as iraye, odo egiri, odomola or passing through epe towards ijebuode etc, then you go through the bypass.
At Poka end of the bypass you either turn right if going upper epe or communities adjacent to it in that direction or you turn left if you are heading towards ijebuode or communities before and beyond it.
This shall be widely and consistently publicised and strictly enforced.
Failure to do the above as a matter of immediacy, we will continue to have the death of many innocent people hanging on our necks.
2. IMPUNITY
This has to do with the violators, the truck drivers and their principals.
Most of these drivers know next to nothing about driving and safety rules. They are too blockheaded to anticipate problems on their vehicles or what to do during emergencies.
Their principals are as guilty as their incompetent drivers. They are not unaware of these ugly occurences for ages but because they believe they can get away with anything, it doesn't concern them if a whole community perishes on account of their lackadaisical attitudes towards the sanctity of human lives.
Dangote as a Body and Aliko as an individual are most guilty in this direction. If an account is taken of how many lives have been lost through Dangote trucks, I doubt strongly if Aliko can make heaven depending, of course, on the criteria that grant access to heaven.
The quality of drivers employed are too low for the capacity of vehicles allocated to them. Training given to them are virtually zero going by the number of mishaps involving Dangote trucks and vehicle maintenance culture is apparently none existent.
The company, as I learnt, has a retinue of lawyers who handle dirty jobs for them and also securing for the company cheap compensations payable in few cases where they are obliged to pay such. Who dares face Dangote, 'the owner of heaven and earth' ?
But on a very serious note, if Dangote is above the law, government is further guilty of dereliction of duty, negligence and shirking of responsibility. Nobody is above the law if social order is anything to go by.
3. UNDUE COMPROMISE
This has to do with all epe stakeholders without any exemption , myself inclusive.
We are all guilty of not observing or anticipating these perennial dangers all along and making overtures to government at all levels to rise up to their responsibilities.
I am sure all of them are as disturbed as myself over this ugly Monday incidence that put epe in the news for the wrong reasons.
THIS IS THE TIME TO RISE UP AND ENSURE PUTTING IN PLACE A PERMANENT PREVENTION OF SUCH CALAMITY IN OUR COMMUNITY.
May Epe never witness this again!!!
#DUKETV
#everyone
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