The Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) has threatened to pursue commercial yellow-branded buses in the state known as ‘Danfo’ and ‘Korope’ that violate sections of the Road Traffic Law 2021.
“Our mandate is all vehicles, but this year, our focus for officers is commercial transporters,” said VIS Chief Vehicle Inspection Officer Akin-George Fashola on Channels Television’s new breakfast show, The Morning Brief.
The official stated that while private persons have poor cars on the road, the Service has enough technology to deal with wayward private owners.
Fashola said, “I’m at a level where I’m comfortable with the technology the state has developed and put on the roads to take care of private citizens. You will hardly see Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Officers disturbing private citizens on roads.
“In 2024, we are facing commercial entities because there are just so many of them. It’s high time we changed our focus, our approach to get those numbers down to a level.
“Having said that, even private citizens have very bad cars but my main goals is for commercial citizens.”
When asked if the Service was authorised by law to arrest one-way drivers, the official stated that as a law enforcement organisation, the Service accepts assignments for priority traffic violations such as arresting one-way defaulters. “It is not a primary focus for us but it’s an addition,” he stated.
Fashola further stated that the state’s Ministry of Transportation installs signs on exclusive one-way roads, but the signposts are stolen, causing ignorant drivers to violate the law.
Danfo drivers’ antics can be terrifying on Lagos highways. Danfo drivers’ activities can be dangerous, from reckless driving to poorly maintained buses that emit plumes of thick smoke into the atmosphere, polluting the air, and they occasionally engage in fights with road transport workers known as agbero, who are dressed in grimy white tops and green trousers.
The state government has repeatedly stated that Danfo drivers’ operations are incompatible with Lagos”megacity’ aspirations and has promised to phase out commercial buses, but state-owned bus projects have proven insufficient to meet the transportation needs of over 20 million people living in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve centre.
Babatunde Fashola, the former Governor of Lagos State, founded the Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service, formally known as the Vehicle Inspection Unit, on August 2, 2012.
According to information on its website, the Service is responsible for ensuring compliance with all stipulated/required vehicle policies such as roadworthiness, vehicle licence, hackney permit, testing and training of applicants for driver’s license/rider card, and occasionally supplementing the duties of other transport agencies.