There was a time when facts were sacred; when honesty used to be the best policy, and honest people used to be celebrated and rewarded for this virtue. Analysts and philosophers must examine how those days have all but gone. However, those who still want to hear the truth and not ‘alternative facts’ should be allowed to, even if the new world created by Big Tech abhors it.

Since the unfortunate happenings of October 2020 in Lagos State, the people and the government have started to return to normalcy. The private companies have returned to providing services for their clients, and the public servants are fully back at their desks, powering the engine of government. However, one of the major victims of the crisis, the Lagos Concession Company (LCC), has not earned a kobo in revenue for over 18 months. That is the fact. As that company moves towards full re-opening, fair-minded Nigerians must know what it has been doing in its downtime.

First off, Lagosians must understand that the LCC is more than a tolling company. LCC is part and parcel of a vast ecosystem, and as a corporate organisation, it plays its role to keep that ecosystem safe and functional.

This reality is borne out of LCC’s systemic importance to the Lekki-Epe axis of Lagos State, where it provides a bouquet of essential services to commuters, motorists, passers-by, and all stakeholders within the communities where she operates. Despite being forced into the wilderness of zero toll collection, hence zero revenue for a year and a half, the firm dutifully sustained the delivery of those values in service to the people of Lagos State throughout the period.

For instance, on March 31, 2021, LCC’s Rescue and Emergency Team saved the life of an abandoned hit-and-run victim at the Igbo Efon end of the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway. According to eyewitnesses, the individual had been left for dead on the roadside by an unknown driver.

Less than two weeks later, on April 13, 2021, another man was fortunate to be saved by the same team after an accident around the Jakande end of the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway. The company even footed his hospital bills after he had been stabilised.

Then, on the 8th and 14th of February this year, two potential suicides were averted when the LCC’s Route and Incident Management Team members on the Lekki/Ikoyi Link Bridge talked two young men down and averted potential tragedies.

From October 2020 to date, the LCC has logged, intervened, and assisted with well over 1,000 major and minor vehicular accidents on the Lekki-Epe Expressway. This, the company has done while keeping its family of over 500 staff intact and maintaining a significant number of security operatives, comprised of police, NSCDC and LASTMA officers as part of the Patrol team.

And the LCC Security Team has also been well worth the investment. They have sustained security patrols and operations on that road, saving countless lives and protecting billions in property. The team arrested six armed robbers on the 10th and 27th of June 2021. The first set of three was captured at the Admiralty Round-about while committing a robbery and snatching mobile phones in traffic. The second group met their waterloo while robbing passengers at the Maroko Junction axis. Both robbery gangs were handed over to the Maroko Police Division for prosecution.

Similarly, on the 16th and 18th of August, 2021, two syndicates of ‘One-Chance’ operators were apprehended at the Jakande Intersection and handed over to Ilasan Police Division for further investigation and prosecution.

This is just one of the many benefits Lagosians enjoy when they drive on the Lekki-Epe Expressway. There’s always security close by, and safety is assured. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, on April 4, 2021, the LCC team proactively averted a potential huge fire incident that would have created an untold hazard to people and the environment around the Lekki Conservation Centre on the Lekki-Epe Expressway when its team was alerted to a distressed and leaking 30,000 litre-petrol tanker around midnight.

To make driving experience on the road as pleasurable and time-saving as possible, LCC keeps a team of Traffic Managers on standby. These guys routinely embark on joint enforcement exercises with LASTMA officials to ensure and maintain law and order along the road for commuters’ comfort and convenient driving experience.

For example, 24 truck drivers were apprehended for indiscriminate parking along the Lekki/Epe Expressway between September and November 2021.

As most Lagosians know, the Lekki/Epe area suffers terribly from environmental issues like erosion and flood. On March 10 2022, in a bid to rid the corridor of environmental nuisance, LCC’s team embarked on a joint clearing operation from the Chevron end to Idado, Igbo-Efon, Agungi Gbara and Jakande intersection. Illegal structures were demolished, while two offenders were apprehended.

LCC also performs Regular Road Maintenance of the Eti-Osa Lekki Expressway, including general sweeping of the road, clearing waterway structures, drainage and culverts, and cutting grass. The company also paid for clearing two kilometres of the Ajah-Ado drains, including removing and replacing drainage covers, clearing of debris, and proper disposal of waste.

The LCC’s need to return to tolling collection is a social imperative to enable the company to continue to deliver value to all its stakeholders and the communities it serves and meet its financial obligations to lenders.

The value the company delivers cannot be understated to please the whims of a minority that does not know and therefore, does not appreciate the strategic importance of LCC to social harmony within its ecosystem.

For those of us that know, we should all support LCC’s return to full operations. If not for any other reason, but for the sake of the several hundreds of employees that earn their livelihoods directly from the various services LCC provides; the several thousand that are employed indirectly through contractors and value chain partners; their several thousand dependents; as well as the millions of Lagosians that use the road daily.

Let us all support the LCC; it is truly more than just a tolling company. LCC is a responsible and valuable corporate member of the Lagos society.

• Babalola wrote from Lagos