I was once involved in an accident on this very same spot in 2010. And from the pictures i see, there seems to have played a similar scenario with mine. Ours was caused by the Police, who set up an illegal road-block on this very steep slope. Loads of cars occupied all three lanes and stretched for about 50 meters.

I began to hear loud bangs from behind me while i waited on the illegal police road-block queue. Immediately i looked behind me, there came this DANGOTE ''Out of Control Freight-Liner Trailer'', smashing vehicles from behind and coming straight at us. Few seconds later, it was my turn for impact.

God saved myself and my friend that day. I still have the pictures of our car and the cars behind and in front of us that some of the passengers didn't make it out. The trailer was fully loaded with sugar. Two Mazda buses derailed the trailer and it eventually stopped on top of them, trapping the occupants and making sure no one came out. The trailer burst into huge flame immediately it stopped, and roasted occupants in both buses and surrounding vehicles.

Area youths got angry and headed for the Police guys who had long scampered, firing gun-shots into the air. One of the Police guys couldn't make it to the vehicle, and ran with his gun to the Statue (Yoruba, Igbo & Hausa) that welcomes you into Lagos. He was firing warning shots from there.

Before Mobile Police men eventually arrived the scene and tear-gassed everyone (Protesting Youths, wounded passengers & Travellers coming into Lagos)

The Nigeria Police was quick to dissociate itself by the next morning in National papers, that it had never posted nor assigned any of its officials to that highway spot and as such, The Nigeria Police was not in any way the cause of the Accident.

I laughed.

Cheers Nigerians.

We are a Security and Asset Protection firm based in Abuja. Recent External postings have provided for a Vacancy in the Accounts and Finance Unit of the company, for a Registered Accountant with a HND background.

Please be guided and informed, that this opening is ONLY for Abuja based applicants.


Interested persons should please send in their Curriculum Vitae's to aanetor@cotekit.com and schude@cotekit.com

Sincere Regards.

I have no bias against ARIK whatsoever, But i have an experience to share too, while i and a friend were aboard ARIK from Abuja to Lagos, I have the flight numbers , Will post them if asked to.

1. The flight was supposed to be for 5pm, but we eventually boarded at about 6:30pm and took off about 27min later.

2. Before the plane took off, the entire passenger cabin was very hot. If not for the rain that fell that afternoon, i am very sure we all may have roasted before we arrived Lagos. I am yet to know if its a strategy aimed at reducing Aviation Fuel consumption just like some of our local land transport lines do. We only experienced some level of cooling only when we were airborne. That lasted for about 20min before the vents began blowing out normal fan breeze.

3. I felt it was particular with just that flight, not until we left Lagos on the Sunday of that same weekend after a bad trailer crushing experience on the Lagos Ibadan express-way. Flight was for 4:00pm, but we boarded at about 5pm. This flight was the hottest i have ever flown in my entire life. Passengers were practically fanning themselves thru-out the entire trip. I then asked my friend if something wasn't wrong with these pple, There again, Nigerians as we always do kept mute and grumbled in their inner-most, lifting and tilting the air ducts/vents to face them directly so they could at least get some fan air and avert suffocation.

4. We landed Abuja safely (Most important)


5. My mum must have been in the same flight with LENNOX, that Thursday. Herself and my sister were bound for the UK. Flight was for 11am that Thursday. I dont know if they took off at the scheduled departure time, but i was amazed to see her call at about 3pm of that same day while i was still in the office. Before i picked the call, looked at the clock in the office and counted the hours. In my mind i said "This isn't possible" did they use a Concorde? To my amazement, they were still in Nigeria. They had taken off, and had gotten to somewhere around Kano when they were told that the plane had developed technical problems and had to return to Abuja. What did u expect Nigerian passengers to do "PRAYERS". They were on their way back to Abuja when they (ARIK) informed them again that Abuja's Airport didn't have equipments to fix the issues, and moreover wouldn't have had enough materials to combat any fire or disaster that may occur. NAIRALANDERS!! the pilot flew them in the ill fated plane to Lagos, and hovered around for hours to burn off fuel before he eventually landed the air-craft. The information i got from my Mum was that not even a fly from ARIK came to sympathize with them or apologize for the embarrassment & fear.

An hour later, they were yet to take off to the UK with another flight. But we thank God, that another air-craft was finally provided and they arrived the UK successfully.

This write-up is from my personal experience and that of my mum, Whoever flies local routes with other airlines who dont charge as high as Arik will give u a good climate. I am not concluding, but reports from people will tell if Arik is ready for business in Nigeria.


Thank you,

Just a little more contribution on the topic, I also think u should do a wheel balancing and Alignment done, But u should be there while its being done, Some places utilize the new Computer based wheel balancing & Alignment systems. But sometimes those systems aren't a hundred % ok, Here is a better way of knowing if a good job has been done,
1. After the balancing has been done on a particular tyre (Especially Front)
2. Ask the vulcanizer to fit the tyre and tighten only two or three nuts.
3. While that tyre is still hanging in the air,
4. Get into the vehicle and engage the gear of your vehicle to (D3 or D2) (Automatic)
5. the tyre should begin to rotate and assume speed like if it was being driven.
6. Watch ur speedometer, it should start rising.
7. Once it gets to 100 & exceeds without vibrating, the u know they did a good job.
8. Do same on both front tyres since its a front wheeler.
9. U can also rotate and do same sequence for all tyres via the front wheel.
10. Sweet talk ur vulcanizer, cos they dont always like goiing thru dis process,
11. Goodluck