Vehicle accidents, congestion worsen on Abuja roads as traffic lights malfunction

Across key commercial and strategic locations in Abuja, failing and broken traffic lights are triggering a rise in road crashes and traffic congestion.

Drivers and residents informed PREMIUM TIMES that the Bolingo Junction at Church Gate, Abuja, has become a hotspot for car accidents.

“I can even say there are accidents there everyday” Onehr Ali, a commercial driver, told this newspaper.

“The kind of accident that occurs at this junction, they are always serious ones. Because everybody just passes anyhow, and mostly speeding,” another driver, John Onome, told our reporter at Church Gate.

The commercial drivers said the malfunctioning traffic lights at some of the intersections are creating confusion and increasing road crash risks.

“When the traffic light is not functioning, vehicles coming from this side will meet those coming from the other side,” Mr Ali added, explaining that the resulting confusion frequently lead to collisions.

PREMIUM TIMES observed similar non-functional traffic lights across several key areas in the city, including Jabi Park, Utako Junction, Wadata Plaza in Zone 5, ITC, Bullet, Gudu Junction, and Orange Garden Zone 2, leaving drivers and commuters without proper guidance.

Some of the traffic lights spotted by our reporter are either broken, malfunctioning, or have stopped working.

Jabi worsen case

In the Jabi area, many traffic signals located at major intersections are out of order, with at least six faulty lights recorded.

One of the lights, meant to help drivers navigate the interjection between the garage and the T junction, was broken.

One of the Garage’s conductors, who gave his name as Chukwuebuka, said the infrastructure was damaged by an overloaded truck and has not been repaired since then.

Chukwuebuka during an interview with a Premium Times reporter at Jabi Garage. Photo Credit Popoola Ademola

“It was an overloaded truck that hit it while passing through one night. It has been there like that for over six months,” he said, adding that most of the traffic lights in the area have not been working since he resumed work at the park over six months ago.

Faulty pedestrian lights

This newspaper also observed widespread damage and malfunction of pedestrian signals in nearly all major intersections in the city, including Wuse Market, the Central Business District (CBD), Utako, Arab Junction, Berger Junction and Jabi District.

Even in areas where the main traffic lights remain operational, these pedestrian signals are frequently out of service, causing widespread confusion between drivers and residents walking.

Traffic light violation

In August, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) announced their new enforcement policy regarding traffic light violations in Abuja.

The organisations said the policy was established to curb rising traffic light violations amid the urban renewal efforts under FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.

The new policy included deploying a special task force constituted to patrol strategic locations, arrest violators and enforce laws.

Offenders will face strict penalties, including potential medical and psychological evaluation.

However, this newspaper observed that the violations have continued in the city centre.

Drivers ignore traffic lights and other road signals.

“Drivers don’t obey the traffic light, even when the light says red, they will still drive past, knowing that there is no consequence for their action,” Muhammed Yusuf, a resident of Abuja lamented.

Reports and responses

Illyasu Tijani, the FRSC FCT sector commander, said while the commission is expected to work without the traffic signal, the presence of light also enhances their work.

“The presence of traffic lights will lessen stress and help to improve the performance of our officers.”

He also noted that keeping over 200 City centre traffic lights at every junction operational can be challenging as they are both electrical and mechanical tools. He said when it comes to replacement, the procurement processes could be long.

“There are so many traffic lights in FCT, we have about 200 plus junctions where we have traffic lights inside the city centre. I think about 217. And you know they are electrical and mechanical and some of them develop faults over time.

“You discover a traffic light that is working today, tomorrow, you find out it’s not working. Y,ou discover sometime it’s been fixed. So, what we do as lead agency on safety management, we ensure we confirm when we notice a traffic light that is not working and notify the appropriate authority within the FCT. And some of them can be easily fixed and some of them even after the fixing you discover they need a replacement.

“And when it comes to replacement, you know it’s no longer maintenance, it’s procurement. And procurement is a long process.

“So, I’m sure these are part of the challenges we are having and it’s not peculiar to Abuja, it’s everywhere. Once you are using anything electrical or mechanical, they will definitely develop faults,” Mr Tijani said.

On the issue of traffic violation such as beating red light and driving against traffic, he said the commission was collaborating with courts to secure convictions, suspend drivers’ licences, and mandate psychological evaluations for offenders.

“Concerning the people that follow one way and the people that beat the traffic light, we are subjecting them for psychological evaluation. Because we believe it’s becoming rampant in FCT and we believe people are doing that, maybe because either they are under influence or maybe they are physically or mentally not alright.

“Driving is a very serious business. And we discover some people have high blood pressure, low sugar, and some are even driving under the influence of drugs

“We are working with the FCT court because once we arrest you for that offence, you don’t pay fine, we take you to court of law, and we have received a lot of convictions. Some people’s licences have been suspended. I think today we have two drivers whose licences have been suspended.”

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Repairs and replacements before end of year

The Director Traffic Management of the FCTA, Okey Ichie, in a phone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES said the directorate has commenced the necessary contracts to fix all the traffic issues in the FCT, including the replacement of faulty traffic signals and CCTV.

“The maintenance contracts are ongoing, and traffic light violator solution is also being tested at some selected junctions before expanding to other areas,” he said.

Mr Ichie said efforts were also underway to synchronise the city’s traffic lights for monitoring from control rooms.

“We plan to even put the traffic light violator solution. We are doing the test case in some junctions. After the proof of concept, we will now expand the cameras to other places. Yes, in the next couple of months, you will see changes.

Responding to the malfunctioning traffic signals, he said “We try to fix them and there’s an ongoing effort. The damaged ones, we’ll remove them and replace them. It’s part of the contract.”

“There are a couple of ones we are trying to remove, maybe within the week”, he said.

He added ,“We’ll get feedback from people because there are more than 200 intersections with traffic lights. We are trying to synchronise them so that in a control room you can always have one minute remaining,

“You get the packs and go and fix the ones that are down, the damaged ones. As I said, before the year ends, we depend on procurement, which takes some time.”