Ladies and Gentlemen,

This thread is actually a documentation of my experience with the Emergency toll free lines 112 & 767. (A bit lengthy though)

On that fateful night at about 10pm, I was on my way home from work and decided to buy fuel that would last me the rest of the week. I stopped by at Awolowo road in Ikoyi but the vehicle queue was just too long. Fortunately, I always carry an empty 30ltrs gallon in my car trunk. So I picked this and joined the queue for gallons. I was so unlucky cos when it got to my turn, the station shut down for the night.

I drove off from there and headed to Ojuelegba. I parked close to the entrance of a fuel station (since they were not selling) and proceeded with my gallon to Oando which was adjacent and joined the queue. The time was already past 11pm. I persisted on the queue and I was pretty close to getting fuel when my fiance called me (she was in the car waiting). She told me that the security asked her to re-park because they were expecting a fuel tanker that night and my car would obstruct. She attempted to repark the car (she can also drive) but the car wouldn't start.

This had gone on for a while, until she called on me to assist. I was about 5 turns away from buying and I asked the dude behind me to help me watch my gallon. I got to the car and tried all I could but the engine would not kick. I saw how serious this was and then I went back to retrieve my gallon from the queue(I ended up not buying) so as to find a solution. Surprisingly, my car electronics where working fine, head lamps turned on full, radio could come on and my reading lights were not dim. This made me believe the issue was not a battery fault.

Time was past midnight and I tried calling my mechanic since I was not far from home, I got no response. The area was becoming deserted and I thought of getting a tow truck that can tow the car to my house. That was when the thought of an emergency call came to my head.

First I dialled 112, a lady picked the line and asked what my emergency was. The accent sounded like a programmed machine voice and to be sure a human was behind that voice, I said "Hello" like 4 times. The lady then said she could hear me (Hmm, now she was human) and then I proceeded to state my emergency. I explained my situation and asked if she could get me a tow truck. She assured me she would get in touch with LASTMA and also said she would contact the RRS to dispatch a team to my location so as to ensure my safety. This was exactly 12:32am, and I was not far off from Ojuelegba bustop. For about 30minutes, I saw no LASTMA tow truck and no RRS team.

My fiancée was already telling me not to waste my time that nobody would come (That emergency service don't work in Nigeria), she suggested talking to the security person to allow me park my car in their compound and even give them part of the money I would have given the tow truck. I told her that since I spoke with an agent, they will come. At about 1:00am, reality started to set in (How in the world would it take over mins to get help, since I even close to a major hub like Ojuelegba). Immediately I 'googled' and found another emergency number 767. This is the Lagos state emergency number.

I called 767 and a guy picked the call. He asked my emergency and I repeated that I was stranded and my car won't start. I asked for a tow truck so I can get home safely. Can you guys believe the dude on the call told me that the number I called only attends to LIFE THREATENING EMERGENCY
. I was shocked. I explained to this guy that because I was not bleeding to death, or being robbed doesn't mean I'm not in a life threatening situation. He told me to contact a private towing service. I then told him that if I had a contact for a private towing service, I would not have called the emergency line, that he should provide me one let me call them. This dude said he did not have any and told me there is nothing he can do about my situation. I dropped the call and then immediately resorted to the advice my fiancée gave me earlier. She was already angry with me for wasting time all these while. I managed to get the security to agree to help me re-park. The car was pushed into the compound and I gave them some money. I got home by 2:30am.

My point here is that for the first time, I attempted to use the emergency service but they disappointed. A major LASTMA hub is at Iponri, which is less than 2km to my location. Yet until I left for my home, nobody came, nor called back to confirm if I still needed help. This just heightens my fear generally, I wonder even if the government provides all the social infrastructures required of a mega city like ours, it may never work out due to poor response to call to duty on the part of service men. Maybe they got in touch with LASTMA and RRS but those ones didn't attempt to move, I may never know.

Imagine an emergency centre agent telling me they do not respond except there is a life threatening emergency. I expected them to have private towing service numbers so they can at least assist me with that even if they won't help me cos I was not in a threatening situation.

The following day, I received a call from 713, when I picked a lady was on the line and said she was following up on my emergency call. She wanted to find out if I was satisfied with the service rendered. I managed not to vent my anger on her, but told her my experience. She apologized and said the agent was not supposed to say that. She also said he would be sanctioned because the line 767 was for all emergencies.

I applaud the feedback mechanism in place, but like I said earlier until the people who are supposed to render this service take their jobs seriously, our emergency system would never attain that level where people would be confident and assured that they would be attended to in their cases of emergency.

Thanks for your time.

Following

[size=14pt]Lol. You got served.

It's not her fault. It's the training she got. It was made known to her that an emergency only entails taking you to LUTH or yaba left.


You sef, you expected too much from them. Dispatch RRS to you for your safety? Lol. They will tell you how you have committed an offence by making them come there.


Pele. [/size]

Lol lots of incompetent people everywhere

Hmmm...is your case really an emergency Like emergency?? Well they could have called lastma and lastma may not have responded.

so what's so political in ur experience dat made u 2 open d thread in politics section?

Endtime numberz

@OP you must be high on dog shit for thinking emergency centres are functional in a shithole called Nigeria.
In this country of ours, it is survival of the fittest and all man for himself.

[b]That was a horrible experience you had and sorry about that.

Lemme explain how the 112 works in Nigeria.
1. Those agents that receive the calls are inadequately trained.
2. The training is so shallow that the agents don't really know beyond the more common cases like accident, fire outbreak, flood, kidnap, robbery etc.
3. Those response agencies like police, ambulance, fire service are not readily available as you think.
4. This 112 emergency service has been around for over 5 years now but numerous questions about how it is not that popular among the citizenry begs for answers.

There is more to this thing and many other things about this country than it meets the eyes.

My little piece.