As part of measures to curb reported excesses on enforcement
of the state’s traffic laws, the Lagos State Traffic Management
Authority, LASTMA, has ordered junior officers in its rank to stop
arresting erring motor-cycle riders and motorists in the state
forthwith.
The action is taken in a bid to checkmate aggressive enforcement of the state’s traffic law by LASTMA.
On
the barring of junior LASTMA officers from enforcement of road traffic
law, the General Manager of LASTMA, Engr. Babatunde Edu, gave the order
in his address at a public forum on the Law, organised by the Nigeria
Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, at the weekend.
According
to Edu, the move was a spontaneous measure to respond to the complaints
against aggressive law enforcement by junior officers.
He urged
the public to report any junior officer who victimises or harasses them,
saying they have been stripped of the power to arrest.
While
urging members of the public not to take laws into their hands when
unlawfully arrested, Edu said the officers are to render assistance to
the motorists in ensuring traffic laws are voluntarily complied with.
He
charged members of the public to take note of the names of such
officers, insisting that junior officers have been warned not to arrest
again following the complaints of aggressive enforcement.
He
said: “You can easily identify the junior officer with black epaulet on
their shoulders; they cannot arrest, only the senior ones with red
epaulets on their uniforms can arrest.
We have stopped the
juniors from arresting motorists and okada riders except during a joint
operation. That is the extent we have gone in checkmating aggressive
enforcement of the law”
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