Motorists and
Commuters in Port Harcourt have condemned the indiscriminate blasting of siren by some drivers in Rivers State.
A cross section of motorists as well as commuters who spoke to our correspondent in random interview yesterday described the behaviour of some bullion van drivers, and escort patrol vehicle drivers who are in this habit it as a great nuisance and noise.
According to them, some of these drivers even when they are alone in a vehicle, blast their motor siren and revolving light in order to beat traffic, and thereby causing panic to other road users.
Worse still, they said some of these drivers especially when conveying their expatriate bosses to from work act as if they are ignorant of other road users.
They asserted that some criminals have also joined suit as they also fixed siren and revolving lights on their cars to avert police checks and break traffic at will.
Although, most of these acts were carried out by security officials, the road users have called on the Nigeria Police to enforce the law against indiscriminate blasting of sirens by non-authorised officials and arrest and prosecute such offenders to serve as deterrent to others, in order to have some sanity on the roads.
A commercial driver plying Borikiri to Lagos bus stop, Mr Ifeanyi Gabriel, said it is unfortunate that Port Harcourt, Rivers State is the most lawless state in terms of indiscriminate use of siren.
Gabriel lamented that another area where such act thrives is at the Borikiri axis, adding that with one road in and out, the police patrol vans and those conveying some foreigners caused a lot of nuisance and chased other road users to cause road crashes.
He therefore appealed to the authorities to take drastic action as to ameliorate the ugly trend.
Another driver, Joe Samuel, who plies Port Harcourt to Bori in Khana local government said the situation is even worst along that axis of the road as most of the companies operating within the area intimidate other drivers with their sirens and cause some other road users to panic and clear their vehicles into the trenches or big pot-holes.
Our bolt-joints and tyres are always affected while trying to clear for drivers on siren because if we don’t clear, their military personnel often embarrassed us with their guns”, Samuel said.
Also commenting, Mrs Sarah Inko-Tariah condemned the act of impunity exhibited by drivers with siren cars as they do not regard anybody as human being on the road, and called on the Commissioner of Police and other relevant authorities to take action in order to save the lives of the innocent road users.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Police Public Relations Officer of Rivers State, DSP Ahmad Kidaya Muhammed, was not successful.

Collins Barasimeye