24th November, 2017
The Lagos State Government in conjunction with Lagos Traffic Radio 96.1FM, has begun campaign to checkmate incidents of drink-driving resulting in fatalities among drivers in the state during the ‘Ember’ months.
Flagging off a Road Show at the Lagos Traffic Radio office complex on Friday in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Kofoworola Awobamise, said the event was a welcome development, especially coming at this crucial time of the year.
“For me this is a welcome advocacy, especially at this time of the ember months usually associated with accidents. Like the G.M has said, accidents do not come as a result of the name of the months but as a result of careless driving. A lot of the careless driving we get is as a result of drink-driving.
“Basically, what we’re saying is that you should not drink while driving and if you must drink, don’t drive. It’s a message to all Lagosians. You do not have to drink and drive if we’re to take accidents of our roads.
“It’s a very good initiative and we must say kudos, first to His Excellency, to have allowed this to happen at the Traffic Radio, and to the G.M and his wonderful team for putting this together and to let the whole world know that Lagos is working and we’re out to minimise deaths on our roads,” she said.
General Manager, Lagos Traffic Radio, Layinka Adagun, said what was being done by reason of the Road Show, simply was to complement what other sister radio stations were doing as regards forestalling accidents on Lagos roads.
“This is just to complement the ember months campaign by similar organisations, and we’re just emphasising drink driving. Because this has been the main cause of accidents at this time of the year, not ember months. So, we’re trying to help the society demystify the ember months by saying ‘don’t drink and drive’. When you don’t drink and drive, you’ll find that there’ll be less accidents in the ember months,” he said.
He said the traffic radio station would be picking motor parks across the zones of Lagos for campaign beginning from Friday (today) with Berger and ending up in Ikeja.
“Next week, we will go to Iyana Ipaja down to Iyana Iba. The week after, we’ll go from Mazaza to Kola area. We’ll still go to Ojota, Ketu and Ikorodu. The last lap will be from CMS to Ajah before wrapping it up in Epe,” he said.