FERMA set to tackle defecation on highways

Mr Kehinde Afolabi, a Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) engineer on Tuesday said that the agency was collaborating with the relevant stakeholders to tackle defecation on federal highways in Lagos.

He told NAN that all stakeholders must unite to tackle defecating on roads and such abnormalities as burning of tyres, road cutting and drain stuffing.

He criticised the activities of articulated vehicle drivers who defecate on highways while waiting to go into the ports as well as other road users who used the cover of the night to commit the act.

“We have several menace; they defecate on the roads; what about the used tyres directly into our drains, which nobody could own up?

“This is the major problem we are still having with them, it’s attitudinal. We tend to go outside the country and we respect other people’s (laws), but in Nigeria here today we find out that most of these abuses are done at night.

“We are strategising to see what we can do about it. We have been talking to different bodies, Nigerian Shippers Council; we have been working with them to really curb the menace and very soon we’ll overcome these abuses.

“This leads to problems which directly affect our drainage systems and the resultant effect is spill on the road causing potholes degenerating to failed sections.

“We assure that our FERCSARA with all other bodies will curb the menace and we will be on top of it very soon.”

NAN reports that Afolabi is also the South West Acting Chairman of the Federal Roads Committee on Surveillance and Action against Road Abuse (FERCSARA).