Following the fatal accident that occured at the Imo State University Junction on the 18th of May, 2024, Former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Imo State, Prof. Francis Dike, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has faulted the new speed bumps recently placed on Orji/Owerri lanes.
In a statement signed by him, he commended the authorities for their quick reaction, describing such intervention as evidence of concern for Imo citizens, while revealing that the speed bumps are not actually the necessary safety measures required.
His words “May I respectfully submit that this is the wrong thing to do on those lanes. From my experience and the little knowledge left of the physics I learned at school, the explanation of most accidents there is due to the jilopy juggernauts failing brakes and in the descent gather speed before they plunge into people. A speed bump will only exacerbate things by telescoping the juggernauts and making them plunge into the area, probably with whiplash effects. Such a scenario will spell Armageddon and Chukwuabiama kere uwa forbid that on His people.
“I have heard many suggestions, including flyover, but that does not address the root cause of ‘brake failure’ by juggernauts. Not to put too fine a point, the problem is brake failure by jillopy juggernauts. The solution must be to my mind, getting rickety juggernauts and vehicles off our roads. The authorities must see that these rejects or scraps elsewhere are off our roads or at least go for maintenance tests every other month.
“Around 2012, I was a victim of one of them at Amaraku and inspite of the vehicle not having certificate of road worthiness, no Insurance and no consistent Registration plates, the Police released the vehicle to the owner few days later without compliance”.
He cited the case of a young girl who was involved in the same road accident disaster with him.
According to him, the poor teenage girl’s parent’s cry for treatment expenses was met with the DPO retorting if the vehicle owner is Dangote to be required to pay for all that deposit?, adding that it is very regretful that the poor girl has been ruined for life following the accident, but most unfortunate that our cruel society goes on mindless.
