Almost eight years after Lagos State government introduced the no physical vehicle inspection, no road-worthiness certificate under its computerised vehicle inspection, the process is gradually being corrupted, with vehicle owners procuring roadworthiness certificate without their vehicles inspected.

Before the computerised inspection was introduced, vehicles owners were usually issued road worthiness certificate without their vehicles being inspected.

However, with the new policy vehicles are not only brought to the inspection centres, they are also diagnosed through a computer system to verify if they were road worthy, but with N10,000 bribe, vehicles are now being bypassed from the electronic checks and certificates are issued.

It would be recalled that the state government said the initiative is part of the reforms in the transportation system to help improve safety on all roads across the metropolis as well as help to curb and reduce to the barest minimum, accident rate, which had spiked in recent times.

Tony Okechukwu, a private car owner, revealed that roadworthiness exercise is one thing he likes to partake in, as it helps him know the condition of his vehicle and gives him a level of safe driving confidence.

According to him, this year, owing to his busy work schedule, he couldn’t make it to the VIO on his inspection due date, so, he called his agent to explain his situation.

“All I actually wanted to find out from the agent was the possibility of a new date as my 60 days inspection time had expired but the agent said if I tip him with N10,000, he could facilitate the getting the roadworthiness certificate without having to take my vehicle to the office.

“When I asked why N10,000 that it was too much, he said that is the rate for it. Although paying to get the certificate instead of actually going for the test was not what I intended when I called him but I opted for the payment and I got someone to pick up the certificate from the agent for me,” he said.

Okechukwu noted that the time spent in some inspection centres especially the one at Cele is discouraging. And there are many others who have got the certificates without their vehicles visiting any of the inspection centres.

Also commenting, Adekunle Abiodun, a private car owner, said his grievance is the N500 ticket charge he is compelled to pay at the VIO inspection centre in Cele Bus Stop each time he drive into the premises for inspection.

“The worst part is that the VIS officers deny involvement in these charges. They claim it is the Lagos State government that mounted the ticket unit but I see no sign that indicates the payment is from the state government. And if actually, what exactly is the reason for this payment if not another means of extortion and a way of making life harder for people in the state.

“If your vehicle fails the inspection test, and you return another day after fixing the identified issues with the car, you are compelled to pay another N500 at the gate. So, I really think the Lagos State government should look into this.”

Speaking to The Guardian, Dare Adelabi, a commercial bus driver, said: “I have been driving danfo for over 15 years and nobody don ask me for vehicle particulars. So wetin I dey find go VIO?” he boldly declared.

“Nobody don ever stop me to ask for my vehicle particulars, when Police or LASTMA stop me, I give them something (tip) as usual and dem go allow me go do my business, but road safety no dey even stop me, na private car owners dem dey stop.”

Adelabi added that VIS officers on many occasions do not stop commercial vehicle drivers because it’s a total waste of their time and that of the passengers in the vehicles who have to catch up with one appointment or the other.

“More so, how many commercial vehicles would they stop and arrest? I can beat my chest and say confidently that many commercial bus drivers in Lagos do not go for roadworthiness inspection. We don’t even know what they do there or how they do what they do.”

But a resident, Tajudeen Abiodun said: “Exempting commercial vehicles from roadworthiness tests is a free pass for road accidents – it’s an automatic death sentence for passengers, a risk that should not be tolerated.

“If any vehicle should be given a free pass from the roadworthiness test, it should not be commercial vehicle drivers at all. As a matter of fact, they should be the major partakers of the exercise. I think most private car owners make conscious effort to put their vehicles in good condition for obvious reasons – it’s their personal car, they take care of it, some even care for their cars like they care for themselves.”

“Let’s run a worst-case risk scenario on private car owners Vs Commercial vehicle drivers putting vehicles that are not roadworthy on the road. For private vehicles, you have just the driver or a few others in the car. But commercial vehicles, it’s a lot of lives at risk on each vehicle and they are the ones on the road all the time because that’s their job.

“So, the commercial vehicle drivers are the major road users, they are on the roads 24/7 and the government traffic law agency nonchalantly exempt them from the roadworthiness test, risking the lives of hundreds of passengers in their vehicles on a daily basis. For me, this clearly explains why a lot of accidents happen on Lagos roads. It also explains why you find commercial vehicles suddenly develop faults and stop on the roads leaving the passengers in the vehicles stranded.

“Sometime last week, our vehicle stopped on the Third Mainland Bridge by 8:00pm and all 14 passengers including the driver and conductor, making 16 people in the vehicle were stranded. The driver didn’t know what was wrong with the vehicle and all of us were terrified because being on the bridge at that time was risky. All efforts to join other commercial vehicles were abortive – they didn’t even stop for us until a mini truck stopped and took us to Iyana Oworonsoki Bus Stop.

“Now, tell me why a single vehicle that drives 16 people on each trip, all day long should be overlooked from taking the roadworthiness test and the VIS agents concentrate on private car owners only. It does not make any sense to me but again this is Nigeria where we conveniently ignore the need and urgency in addressing detrimental issues to chase clout. I really think the Lagos State government should mandate roadworthiness inspection for commercial vehicle users.”

When The Guardian contacted the Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Transport, she said the state government is looking for those agents, imploring residents to alert the government of such persons just to get one of the evidences