Lagos to ban use of articulated vehicles to convey workers

The Lagos Assembly is working on a law for the ban.

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday resolved to amend the state’s Transportation Law, 2000, to prohibit any company from using an articulated vehicle to convey its workers.

At a plenary session of the House, Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji directed a joint committee to look into the issue, and report to the House in January.

The joint committee includes the assembly’s Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Public Petitions, and that of Transportation, Commerce and Industry.

The proposed amendment resulted from a motion moved by Abiodun Tobun, who represents Epe I Constituency on the platform of APC.

Mr. Tobun drew the attention of the lawmakers to the use of articulated vehicles by some construction companies to convey their workers to sites.

“Recently, there was an accident which occurred somewhere around Ibeju-Lekki, where a Julius Berger vehicle, conveying its workers, collided with another lorry, and a lot of people died instantly,” he said.

Rotimi Olowo (APC-Somolu I) said that using articulated vehicles to convey workers was insulting.

“I have been to Germany where Julius Berger came from; no company uses an articulated vehicle to carry its staff members,” he said.

Mr. Olowo, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Works and Infrastructure, urged the Federal Government to stop companies operating in Nigeria from conveying workers with articulated vehicles.

He said that it had become a trend among foreign construction companies in Nigeria.

The Chairman of the assembly’s Committee on Transportation, Commerce and Industry, Bisi Yusuf, said that such companies were not interested in the welfare of their workers but in profit.

(NAN)