Writers are like prophets. They have no power of knowing the exact time what they predict will come to past.

In August, upon the imminence of the new Lagos Traffic Law being signed by the Governor of Lagos State, I pointed out the ease with which many law abiding Nigerians could walk into jail, simply driving from one part of Lagos to another. Today, I experienced it.

I lived in the Millennium Estate, Ijaye-Ojokoro for about four years up to last October. For those not conversant with that area, the estate is off Ijaye Bus Stop, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.


From eternity, people going to the nearby Local Council headquarters, the customary court and the marriage registry inside the complex, the popular Jankara market, the Millennium Estate in reference, and Agbado Crossing exited the expressway at Ijaye Bus Stop.


I was visiting the area again today around 11 am and exited the expressway as usual at Ijaye Bus Stop only to find myself in the waiting hands of fully armed policemen. One with AK 47 in hand, barked at me to park and alight from my vehicle. With the urgency and menace in his voice some people might actually think a notorious robbery kingpin had just walked into a carefully planned police ambush.


I did as I was told, and waited for further instructions. The officer soon marched me to a spot on the expressway to show me a 'No Entry' sign, tucked neatly behind the huge umbrella of a bread seller right beside the expressway. Sweet relief! At least, it was not a case of me matching the description of a Boko Haram cell commander.

I asked the officer if that was all, and he glared at me with open hostility. Then, he took a few moments to educate me that I had just committed a very serious offence of plunging into a one-way street.


I could not have possibly guessed that the road had become one-way traffic, because it was quite wide. The only trouble the road had always had especially in the evenings was that roadside traders took considerable portions of the road on either side to display their goods, while yellow buses plying Agbado Crossing converted a whole lane on the right side to motorpark, constricting human and vehicular traffic. One would naturally think that those were the issues that needed to be fixed to restore sanity to that road. It would be hard to find any resident of that area who would endorse changing that popular access road to a one-way traffic street.


But beyond all that, two things were clearly wrong with the 'No Entry' sign by the road side at the time I passed. One, the road sign had been completely swallowed from view by a huge umbrella providing shade for a bread seller. Secondly, a broken-down bus was parked by the side of the bread seller, sealing the fate of hapless motorists coming from Abule Egba.

I explained all these to the officer, and he had a ready answer: “Ignorance is not an excuse in law.” He delivered it with such a condescending air as to make it clear such a simple thing was what I ought to have known if my education was not suspect.


To my argument about a bus and a bread seller's umbrella completely covering the supposed sign, he said I could canvass those fine points to the judge on Monday morning. He might be so kind as to accept them for my flagrant violation of Lagos Traffic Law. But before then, could I be so kind as to stop disturbing him with my 'grammar'?


Dozens of other motorists were walking into the booby trap by the minute. Some were arrested, but seeing that they had more than they could handle at any point in time, the police team would routinely ask the excess ‘traffic violators’ to reverse and take alternative routes. For those under arrest, some brisk business was underway, with the nearby petrol filling station acting as the negotiation area.


I wasn’t done disturbing the officer with my 'grammar'. I followed him around as he apprehended other hapless motorists, and argued that the team ought to use their discretion to release people with a warning and arrest only those who refused to heed their instructions, but I might as well have been speaking Greek for all the difference it made.
He told me my offence was a 'jail-able' offence and he did not write the law. The only reason he could contemplate using his discretion in my favour was if I could come up with N10,000! At that juncture, I let him be and sought out his superior officer who watched his boys from a distance.

He turned out to be receptive. I advanced the same points as earlier enumerated and he quite agreed that the sign was obstructed, even though he made no move to correct the situation. He argued that even if the umbrella had not been there, people who had used the road for years would still drive in oblivious of the sign.


In the end, he used his discretion to let me go and sin no more. That is how come you are reading this o! Otherwise, I would have been cooling my heels in some detention room awaiting trial tomorrow morning!


On a serious note, I asked myself a question as I drove away: would I have been so courageous to insist on not paying a bribe if the superior officer had not used his discretion to let me go, especially considering that the offence carries a jail sentence? Would I not have happily negotiated the asking price?

Many years ago, I recall telling a mischievous local council traffic official that rather than give him the bribe he was asking for, I would happily pay into the coffers of government the official fine which was five times the bribe he asked for.

Could I have courageously said the same to those policemen that Sunday morning when I knew the offence, contrived or not, carried a jail term?

http://johnaweonline..com/2012/12/my-close-shave-with-jail-term.html

Soooo

so where am i supposed to pass while going to Jankara market?

Ajala BusStop or I have to go the extra mile towards Kola, ehn?

I'm glad I read this. I would have done the same thing had I visited that area as I planned to since I was quite familiar with the place. Na wa o.

look before you leap.

Guys, i beg anybody wey read this long story 2 tell me the last point, cos me no fit read dis long story. Hunger dey my eyes, i dey see double

The truth is that you would not have been able to summon enough courage to resist paying the bribe. They could easily rope you in for other more serious offenses such as being the one who remotely crashed kaduna state governor's helicopter;anything;just anything. There is no rule of law in this country. So,the wise thing is to negotiate your way out and keep moving.Trying to prove your innocence will work only if the other party is truly interested in justice.

kingsceemark: Guys, i beg anybody wey read this long story 2 tell me the last point, cos me no fit read dis long story. Hunger dey my eyes, i dey see double

lol !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right behind you bro !!!!

Was that epistle necessary? The whole thing could have been summed up to two or three tidy sentences.

Lucky you! It's obvious that they laid ambush there for brisk 'business.' I'd removed that woman's umbrella sha, or follow up with the LG officials. That's why it's hard to pity Nigeria Police when they're mowed down by armed robbers. They're equally criminals.

God of mercy,I have been living in abule egba for five years now and I pass through that place all thr time and I was not aware until now about the "no entry" stuff. Thank God I am reading this,otherwise I wud have fallen into this trap in the nearest future.
But can the corrupt Policemen stay on the road and direct motorists not to eneter rather than ensnare them into the trap only to demand bribes. Fashola and some of his over zealous laws is only making millionaires out of these security operatives and Lastma guys. I tire for this nation of rogues ooh

This is serious, been using this route as far back as 1996, when was it restricted to a one way? Was invited to a graduation ceremony at DOF Institute recently but glad that I couldn't make it 'coz I'll have fallen into same trap like the OP and going by my previous relationship with the men in black which ain't particularly cordial, I would have committed a 'jailable' offence...

dominique: Was that epistle necessary? The whole thing could have been summed up to two or three tidy sentences.

Experience narrated as it happened actually has its value, perhaps more so than than one summed up in bullet points. That the reading/writing culture is dying should not make us forget this. As popular as the SMS culture has become, many still appreciate prose.

Tokotaya: Experience narrated as it happened actually has its value, perhaps more so than than one summed up in bullet points. That the reading/writing culture is dying should not make us forget this. As popular as the SMS culture has become, many still appreciate prose.

You can see the laziness of the 'leaders of tomorrow.'

Thanks 4 d info bro.... Zo much appreciate dis..

One as 2 go tru Dopemu den

kingsceemark: Guys, i beg anybody wey read this long story 2 tell me the last point, cos me no fit read dis long story. Hunger dey my eyes, i dey see double

It's worth reading bro. You might as well be on that route right now heading towards those officers. . .Read and reverse before you are made a minced meat of the situation

Wetin i dey find for the end of Lagos. Outskirts of Lag

@Poster,
Thanks a million for this informative post.
I used to take this route when I was living around this area.
Those breadsellers has to be driven away from that place so people can see road signs properly

dominique: Was that epistle necessary? The whole thing could have been summed up to two or three tidy sentences.

If you can't read articles, join 2go. Just download it to your phone and voila! You will be in touch with your fellow sms-language peeps!

Na only dat bread I just dey look!!! Chaiiiiiii . Local bread gud ooooooooh

I know this is off topic, but I must say OP, that you write beautifully.

@Tokotaya,thanks for this.At least I can give my peeps the heads up(if they are not aware).
Looking at the pics,its hard to believe that's Ijaye bus-stop,something needs to be done about the road side sellers too.

Only a senseless creature would not have envisaged these things at the time the id1otic traffic law was passed. Only in Nigeria (especially Lagos) would government build skyscrappers on a foundation of shallow sand.

You are so crazed about 'one way', yet, most one way roads in the state are not CLEARLY designated as such? Yet you empower poorly trained and criminally minded policemen and LASTMA officials to arrest 'defaulters'. Ignorace of the law is no excuse, is that why I should intuitively and magically know which roads are One Way and which roads aren't? Is that how drivers in other real cities know one way roads? Even in Abuja, one way roads are clearly classified as such, and one would have to be careless to miss the signs.

More sensible governments would have focused on clearly delineating and designating restricted roads or one way roads across the state, before enacting such harsh laws to punish offenders. Otherwise, the laws should have been made with common sense, in a way that envisages that drivers may not identify certain roads as one way roads, thus requiring corrective measures rather than punitive measures. Instead the foolish governor insists on imprisoning anybody that plies a supposed one way road - simply because the driver was not clairvoyant enough to know that it was a one way road?

I have fallen victim a number of times to these LASTMA hooligans, that was why I preferred using okadas whenever I had business in complicated areas that I was not familiar with. Yet the okadas were banned, and now I have to go with my car everywhere - at the risk of innocently falling into these booby traps? Why should someone not strangle this cretin of a governor?

nice write up...

mxxpunkxx!:
so where am i supposed to pass while going to Jankara market?

Ajala BusStop or I have to go the extra mile towards Kola, ehn?

You pass through Ajala bus stop

@OP thank you so much for this... I am very Familiar with that area Beside i was there last week. and i usually visit when ever am around since that was where my family house is.. and Particularly i was well known in that area at both complex, even the tout know me very well, SO if i happen to drive to that area this coming saturday without reading this i would have been a victim and and sturbon and strong headed guy like me.. na jail oooo cos me i go shout for all of them ni. Thanks once again OP for sharing this with Nairalanders

This lagos life don tire me, one day when pees grip me, I have to pay #100 just to urinat because any urination in any gutter could land man in prison....

@OP
Nice write up. Keep it up!.
I' am actually visiting that area, just sitting eating at the Tantalizers at Abulegba bus stop when I saw your post.
Obviously, they prefere motorists to drive against traffic so they can get some bribe money. Otherwise, why will they knowingly allow bread sellers to block the sign post?. Nothing makes a Nigerian policeman happier than when you're in his trap and he's expecting some bribe money from you.

[quote
author=Tokotaya] Experience narrated as it happened actually has its
value, perhaps more so than than one summed up in bullet points. That
the reading/writing culture is dying should not make us forget this. As
popular as the SMS culture has become, many still appreciate prose.
[/quote] u re very correct cos i dont see any big deal in what d poster as written dt somebody can not read if its not lazyness.

I saw that on Sunday when i was going to Jakande Estate in Meiran and the first thing i said was 'What da .....' Why would they turn that major road to a one-way road?
i was later told by the friend i was visiting that the new entrance is after the Jakande Estate second gate; Clem Road or something.

Anyway, thank God you were let off the hook!

Is the above pictures supposed 2 show us anything important
Cux ah swear, me can only see bread(sliced) & iya oni bread