The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) has commenced comprehensive operational preparations for the Ember Months and forthcoming festive season with plans to activate an intensified 24-hour traffic management strategy across the State. The initiative is designed to proactively manage the anticipated escalation in vehicular and pedestrian movements, optimise traffic circulation and forestall avoidable congestion during the period.
The General Manager of LASTMA, Mr. Olalekan Bakare-Oki disclosed that the strategy represents a deliberate recalibration of the Authority’s operational architecture to ensure enhanced traffic surveillance, rapid incident detection and expedited response across critical transportation corridors. He stated that personnel and specialised response teams would be strategically deployed to identified congestion-prone locations, major interchanges, bridges, arterial routes, transport terminals and commercial districts.
Bakare-Oki explained that the intensified operation would leverage real-time traffic monitoring, strategic corridor management, intersection control, traffic-flow optimisation, incident-response protocols and rapid obstruction clearance to sustain network efficiency. Particular attention would be accorded to vehicular bottlenecks occasioned by breakdowns, crashes, indiscriminate parking, illegal loading and off-loading, road obstructions and other recurrent impediments to traffic circulation.
He further disclosed that LASTMA would strengthen its incident management and traffic diversion mechanisms, ensuring that accidented or disabled vehicles are promptly evacuated from carriageways to minimise incident-induced congestion and secondary crashes. Where necessary, tactical diversions and temporary traffic-control measures would be deployed to preserve network continuity and facilitate the orderly redistribution of traffic.
The General Manager emphasised that the complexity and intensity of festive-season traffic necessitate an unprecedented level of inter-agency operational synergy. Accordingly, LASTMA would deepen collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Lagos Ambulance Service Agency (LASA), Lagos State Fire & Rescue Service, Transport Unions and other relevant stakeholders for coordinated incident response, accident evacuation, traffic control and enforcement.
He urged motorists, commercial transport operators, articulated-vehicle and tanker drivers as well as other road users to exercise heightened vigilance and scrupulous compliance with traffic regulations.
He specifically cautioned against speeding, reckless overtaking, driving in- direction prohibited by Law (One-way), illegal parking, indiscriminate loading and off-loading, obstruction of traffic lanes and other unsafe practices capable of precipitating road traffic crashes and debilitating congestion.
Bakare-Oki also advised motorists to undertake comprehensive pre-trip vehicle safety checks, particularly on braking systems, tyres, lighting and other critical components, before embarking on long-distance journeys. He encouraged the public to promptly report crashes, breakdowns, obstructions and other traffic incidents through LASTMA’s toll-free short code hotline 3367, thereby facilitating rapid intervention and reducing incident-clearance time.
The General Manager assured Lagos residents and visitors of LASTMA’s unwavering commitment to maintaining safe, efficient and resilient traffic circulation throughout the Ember Months and festive season. He consequently solicited the collective cooperation of all stakeholders and the motoring public, emphasising that seamless festive mobility requires the convergence of professional traffic management, technological intelligence, inter-agency coordination and responsible road-user behaviour.
Adebayo Taofiq
Director, Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department of LASTMA
