Danger on wheels: Lagos commuters trapped in daily danfo safety nightmare

From torn clothes and sharp bus seats to missing doors, broken mirrors and rusted body parts, some Lagos commuters are travelling in vehicles that pose serious safety risks, despite transport reforms, DANIEL AYANTOYE writes

The sudden tearing sound from his shirt jolted Solomon Adewuyi from the stream of his thoughts as he alighted from the commercial bus.

The 45-year-old was alighting at Maryland, a major commercial neighbourhood in Lagos, on his way to work, when a sharp piece of the bus door caught his shirt and ripped it open.

With his singlet now exposed, a mixture of anger and embarrassment enveloped him as he momentarily stared at the torn shirt.

“I could not continue to the office in the torn shirt. I returned home to change before continuing my journey and arrived at work late. It was a painful experience. Since that day, I decided to check very well before entering any bus,” Adewuyi told Saturday PUNCH.

Adewuyi’s experience is not unusual. Other Lagos commuters, at one point or another, have a catalogue of negative experiences caused by defective commercial vehicles.

One of them was Obianuju Okenwa. She was attending a church service on a Tuesday evening when she boarded a commercial bus.

According to her, she was about to make space for another passenger when her skirt got caught on a metal sticking out on the wooden chair.

“I couldn’t go to the church again that day. I had to alight and take another bus home. My skirt was damaged by the bus, and I had to start covering it with my bag. It was an embarrassing experience,” she said.

In May 2024, content writer Olaolu Akanbi had a similar experience while alighting from a bus at Ojota Bus Stop.

“It was a Saturday morning, and I was visiting a friend who lived not too far away. As I made my way towards the exit of the commercial bus, I heard a part of my jeans tear. If not for the pain I felt in my knee, I would have thought it was not my trousers that had torn.

“A sharp piece of metal protruding from the vehicle seat tore my jeans at the knee. If the material had not been thick enough, I would have been seriously injured. It made me wonder if one could board these buses without ending up with stained or torn trousers.

“I have also been on a bus coming from Obalende when it started raining, and water began seeping through the rusted roof of the danfo, drenching me. My only saving grace that day was that I was not wearing a shirt whose stains would have been visible, or that I was not heading to the office. These are some of the things you see in Lagos,” Akanbi lamented.

Rickety buses

On a typical weekday morning, the search for a bus in Lagos is often a race against time rather than an exercise in choosing the safest vehicle.

Many commuters wait at bus stops for vehicles heading towards their destinations, and when buses arrive, most passengers are more focused on arriving at their workplaces or schools on time in anticipation of heavy traffic.

The same happens most evenings when people return from their businesses or workplaces.

It is during this daily rush that some passengers find themselves travelling in buses with broken seats, damaged doors, exposed metal parts, broken windows and other visible defects.

During visits to Berger, Ketu, Oshodi and the Jakande Gate area last Thursday, Saturday PUNCH observed several rickety commercial buses with visible defects.

Some had badly damaged seats, with exposed metal frames covered with dirty, worn-out and torn foam.

In some cases, the metal components appeared loose or protruding, creating the risk of passengers being scratched or cut while boarding or during transit.

Several buses also had windows with exposed and sharp metal edges.

Even the steering wheels and seat belts of many of the buses were worn out, while their dashboards were badly deteriorated. Some had rough and cracked windscreens.

Other buses were found without doors, leaving passengers exposed to the risk of falling out while the vehicles were moving.

Some also lacked side and rear-view mirrors, while rear, pointer and brake lights were missing.

The bodywork of several buses was extensively rusted, with visible patches of corrosion on the exterior metal panels.

Some body parts appeared weakened, deteriorated or partially damaged, giving the vehicles a visibly neglected appearance.

Arm injured by vehicle seat

Recounting her ordeal, a primary school teacher, Kemisola Adedayo, said she boarded a commercial bus (danfo) from Ketu to Ikorodu last year when she had a painful experience.

“I didn’t know the side of the chair had a sharp edge,” she recalled.

As the vehicle swerved a little, her arm came into contact with the sharp edge, leaving her bleeding and tearing the white top she was wearing.

Shocked by the injury, she shouted and asked the driver to stop the bus.

A fellow passenger came to her aid, giving her a bottle of water with which she washed the wound.

The injury was then tied with a piece of cloth before she returned home, where she sought treatment from a chemist.

Although she described the injury as not too serious, the experience left her wary of the buses she once used without much concern.

“Since that day, I have sworn that I will never enter those buses again,” she said with her hands clasped for emphasis.

Risks of injuries

Commenting on the health risks posed by ageing commercial vehicles, a physician, Dr Femi Aworinde, explained that passengers could be injured by sharp parts of commercial buses, leading to wound infection and tetanus.

He added that hepatitis B and C could raise concerns where there was genuine exposure to contaminated blood.

“Anyone injured by a sharp object should wash the wound with soap and running water and seek medical attention, particularly where blood contamination was suspected,” Aworinde said.

He also urged the state government and transport agencies to intensify roadworthiness checks and remove buses with dangerous defects from the roads until they were properly repaired.

Sitting on an engine?

A video clip which was posted by an X user, Real Qudus, last week, showed a yellow danfo moving on the Third Mainland Bridge with its bonnet raised and covering much of the windscreen.

In the clip which went viral, a man believed to be the conductor was seen sitting on the engine compartment, apparently holding onto part of the vehicle to prevent its breakdown as it moved.

With the bonnet obstructing the driver’s view, the driver was seen protruding his head through the side window to see the road ahead and continued driving.

Passengers were also seen inside the bus as it moved along the bridge.

Developing faults and breaking down

Checks by Saturday PUNCH showed that most rickety commercial vehicles suddenly develop faults and break down along the road, even on risky highways.

When our correspondent arrived at a loading point under the footbridge in Oshodi at 12:11 pm on Tuesday, passengers heading towards Jakande Gate were already waiting.

Only one yellow bus was available, and passengers could be seen scrambling to secure seats inside the rickety vehicle.

Its interior had a makeshift arrangement of seats, including metal frames that appeared to have been joined together by a local welder.

Much of the interior was exposed metal, with some sections covered in dirt and others showing visible signs of rust.

When the bus eventually set out, the journey quickly became an ordeal.

A loud, persistent noise came from underneath the vehicle. Sitting sideways, this reporter had to keep away from the window because of a sharply exposed edge that appeared capable of piercing or cutting anyone who came into contact with it.

The bus door remained open throughout the journey, held in place by a tie attached to the body of the vehicle.

A few minutes into the trip, the bus broke down. What should have been about a 15-minute journey turned into an hour-long ordeal.

After pushing it to a nearby filling station and filling its tank, the vehicle failed to start.

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The bus was subsequently pushed onto an untarred road, where the driver began working on it.

Passengers waited as several minutes were spent trying to get the vehicle running again.

Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, one of the passengers, Olu Ajao, said, “This does not make sense. Is this man going to tell us that he is not aware that this vehicle was bad? I am supposed to meet someone by 2 pm, and it is already 1:53 pm.”

Another passenger, visibly angry, confronted the driver as he struggled to fix the bus and demanded a refund.

“Oga, please give me back my money. Let me look for another vehicle. A customer is waiting for me at the shop,” he shouted in Pidgin English.

A trader, Shola Aina, said passengers were often forced to take the available vehicle when they were in a hurry and had no other bus going their way.

“You cannot be too careful when you are in Lagos. For instance, I am in a hurry to get somewhere, no buses and this is the only one going my route, so I didn’t have an option,” he said.

Another passenger, Chibuzor Uzo, said some commuters did not discover the poor condition of a bus until after they had boarded it.

He said, “Most times you will not know the buses are that bad. It is when you have entered that you will discover some things, and by that time, you cannot come down because you may have even paid them.”

‘Buses over 17 years old’

A 2022 World Bank assessment titled “Air Quality Management Planning for Lagos State,” citing Lagos State Metropolitan Transport Agency data, found that as of 2015, commercial buses (danfos) accounted for about 45 per cent of motorised passenger trips, with “two-thirds” of the fleet possibly “over 17 years old”. Some reportedly travelled up to 80,000 kilometres annually.

The traditional danfos include the Volkswagen Transporter T3, while other models used in Lagos include the Volkswagen LT 22/28/35, Nissan Urvan, Mercedes-Benz 911 and Faca.

A 2024 peer-reviewed study of 88 vehicles in Lagos, titled “The Impact of Vehicle Engine Characteristics on Vehicle Exhaust Emissions for Transport Modes in Lagos City,” found that 66 per cent were more than 10 years old, with researchers noting that minibuses had a high proportion of vehicles above that age.

For commuters, however, the concern is not merely the age of the buses. It is years of use, poor maintenance and makeshift repairs that have left some vehicles with damaged seats, doors, windows, mirrors, lights and bodywork.

Drivers blame finance, street touts

Some drivers interviewed by Saturday PUNCH blamed financial constraints and damage caused by street touts for the poor condition of their vehicles.

A driver of one of the rickety buses, Eyinade Adekunle, said he had been driving the vehicle in its current condition for about five years without experiencing any major problem.

Speaking about the damaged windscreen and other defective parts, Adekunle blamed street touts, popularly known as agbero, for some of the damage.

“It is agbero (street touts) at Oshodi that broke the side mirror and the windscreen because of the N100 and N200 they used to collect. If you don’t give it to them quickly, they will spoil your vehicle,” Adekunle said.

Another driver, Moshood Ogun, questioned how drivers struggling to make a living could afford to replace their vehicles.

“Do you think it is easy to buy a new vehicle? If I don’t manage this old one, will you buy a new one for me? I am using what I have,” he said.

At Ikeja, another mini-bus with registration number, heading towards Berger, appeared relatively neater than some of the other buses observed.

However, its door had been removed, leaving the entrance open throughout the journey.

The driver, who identified himself as Saheed, said the door had been removed by someone to whom he gave the bus the previous day.

“I gave the bus to someone yesterday, and he removed it. I saw it this morning and kept it at home. Maybe I will fix it tomorrow,” he said.

Government’s alternatives

The continued use of ageing danfos comes despite several transport reforms by the Lagos State Government.

According to the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, its Bus Reform Initiative includes Bus Rapid Transit, standard bus routes and First and Last Mile services, with the aim of creating a formalised and regulated bus network across the state.

The BRT began with the Mile 12-CMS corridor in 2008, while the Ikorodu extension was commissioned in 2015.

LAMATA also said its Strategic Transport Master Plan is designed to create an integrated transport system involving buses, rail and waterways.

On August 19, 2026, LAMATA announced that the National Union of Road Transport Workers and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria had signed an agreement to participate in the Lagos State Bus Industry Transition Programme.

According to the agency, the programme is intended to integrate informal operators, including yellow danfo drivers, into a regulated and structured transport network.

The Lagos State Transport Policy also acknowledges the condition of the existing fleet, stating that “a large majority” of danfos are “old, poorly maintained and badly operated.”

The policy proposes a vehicle-scrapping scheme under which operators would receive incentives to replace dilapidated buses with newer vehicles.

Yet the buses observed by Saturday PUNCH suggest that replacing and regulating the ageing informal fleet remains an unfinished task.

FRSC issues warning

The Sector Public Education Officer and spokesperson for the Federal Road Safety Corps, Route Commander Elizabeth Jayeola, described commercial buses travelling with open doors as a serious safety concern, warning that passengers could fall and suffer serious head injuries or death.

Jayeola said defective or missing side mirrors, broken rear lights, severely damaged or rusted body parts and defective seat belts could also compromise the safety of passengers and drivers and increase the risk of crashes and injuries.

She urged passengers to report unsafe vehicles to the FRSC through its Mobile App or toll-free number 122, rather than merely posting videos of them on social media.

“Passengers need to be properly seated in the vehicle, with all doors closed, especially if the vehicle is in motion,” she said.

According to her, the FRSC conducts quarterly vehicle safety checks and takes enforcement action against vehicles found unfit or non-compliant with safety requirements.

She said commercial operators were expected to properly maintain their vehicles before putting them on the road.

She added that the Lagos Sector Commander, Corps Commander Kehinde Hamzat, had stressed that road safety was a shared responsibility and that passengers should not risk their lives for convenience or speed.

Jayeola said the FRSC’s 2026 Ember safety campaign would continue to focus on vehicle roadworthiness, responsible driving and passenger safety through engagement with transport operators, unions, park managers and other stakeholders.

“Safety must come before profit, convenience or speed. Do not put passengers at avoidable risk,” she quoted Hamzat as saying, adding that commercial vehicles were not exempt from FRSC enforcement.

‘Ticking time bombs’

The state Vehicle Inspection Service had warned in 2025 that rickety vehicles posed a serious threat to public safety, saying it had impounded several dilapidated vehicles for failing to meet safety standards.

The Director of VIS, Akin-George Fashola, described such vehicles as “ticking time bombs,” citing expired tyres, weak brakes and rusted body parts as major hazards.

Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, the Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, Taofeek Adebayo, said that the government was enforcing safety regulations and impounding unroadworthy vehicles.

He clarified that LASTMA also enforced provisions against open doors, conductors hanging on vehicles and overloading, with offenders prosecuted before the Lagos State Mobile Court.

“It is still an ongoing exercise, and we will continue until we are able to get a measurable standard of safety for commuters across the state,” Adebayo said.

He urged commuters to report rickety or unroadworthy vehicles through LASTMA’s toll-free line, 3367.

On the planned replacement of danfos, the Head of Corporate Communication, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, Kolawole Ojelabi, disclosed that 15 CNG high-capacity buses had been received last week, with 50 expected before the end of the year.

He said the old danfos would be phased out gradually as more high-capacity buses became available, while affected drivers would be integrated through RTEAN and NURTW cooperatives.