Editor's note: The high rate of extortion and brazen demand for bribe, by officials of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) is one issue that has continued to trigger the ire of many Lagosians.
Just recently, the Lagos state House of Assembly approved the sack of a LASTMA official Onipede Olusegun, who was caught extorting money from motorists.But despite the Lagos state government stiff disapproval of extortion, some LASTMA officials have turned deaf ears to the warnings of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
A Lagosian and NAIJ.com's contributor Adeiye Temitope, in this piece, narrates her experience with two LASTMA officials who demanded a N10000 bribe not to impound a vehicle belonging to her friend.
On Thursday, December 15, 2016, news broke that a LASTMA official was beaten to death by a mob somewhere around Apapa. He was lying helplessly in a gutter while the irate mob beat and stoned him to death. A video of the gruesome murder surfaced online some days later.
On October 5, 2016, another official was beaten to a pulp at Costain after hitting a bus driver, causing him to slump and foam at the mouth. Many believed he had hit the driver with a charm and the mob proceeded to deal with him. They also vandalized the LASTMA vehicle that drove to the scene, then went to the nearest LASTMA office to vandalize more vehicles. It took police intervention to disperse the mob.
In June 2016, an aggrieved bus driver reportedly attempted to set a LASTMA vehicle alight, with the officials inside. Years ago, a LASTMA official trying to enter a public bus was crushed to his death as the bus driver sped off.
They have also been involved in skirmishes with law enforcement agents and LASTMA officials get the short end of the stick in these cases. Soldiers and police officers have beaten up many LASTMA agents.
While I condemn mob actions, beatings and lynching, it is important to understand that uniformed men in Nigeria are a bunch of bullies and sometimes, chickens indeed come home to roost.
LASTMA officials extort motorists
LASTMA officials and other uniformed men in Nigeria are very very oppressive and the oppressed have no business sympathizing with the oppressor. This is why there will NEVER be public outrage when they are beaten up or lynched. Also, the actions of the aggrieved can’t always be controlled and they will sometimes bring a knife to a pillow fight.
Wednesday, January 4, 2016 was my friend’s birthday, so we piled ourselves into a car and went out for lunch and ice cream.
We lunched at a small but cozy restaurant in Ikeja GRA, ordering pounded yam with egusi soup for two of us and vegetable soup for two others. While waiting for our food to be ready, we took loads of pictures as well as Snapchat and Instagram videos. We even made of video of one of our friends spraying the birthday girl money, as per, rich gang.
Then we headed to Coldstone for ice cream, I got orange dreamsicle and coffee flavours with almonds and crushed waffles, you should try it sometime, it’s a heavenly combination. After such a wonderful time, we headed home, thinking we were going to have a perfect ending to a perfect day. But we were wrong; some LASTMA officials decided it was to be otherwise.
On our way back to Magodo, we went through Ojota and we switched lanes close to the turning near Ketu.
LASTMA officials and a police officer immediately stopped us and asked the person sitting in front to move to the back while two LASTMA officials crammed themselves into the front seat.
Now this is actually against the law, because LASTMA officials are NOT allowed to get into your car, or take your keys and drive your vehicle.
On June 3, 2015, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode ordered LASTMA and VIO officials not to impound vehicles of traffic offenders; instead, they are to be booked. They were also provided with cameras to take photos and make recordings of vehicles and drivers that violate traffic and road rules.
But these ones, like many others, ignored Ambode and got into our car anyway. Then they started playing good cop, bad cop. I was quite disgusted and I would have loved to smack them upside the head.
One insisted on taking us to their office (at almost 6pm), while the other said that the person driving must be a gentleman and that we should sort it.
They then asked him to ‘do something’ for them because they did not want to ‘wicked’ him, so they wanted to be nice and asked him to offer them something so they could let him go.
He gave in and gave them something because of two reasons; we had other things to do and we didn’t want to waste time, plus we didn’t want to ruin our friend’s birthday.
They told him five thousand naira was too small and that they wanted 15 thousand, but he said he had only 10 thousand naira with him. They were quite insistent on 15 thousand naira and they only collected it because they spotted another prey.
They took the cash and jumped down to harass a commercial bus that had slowed down while our car was reversing on the express.
They’d probably collect another 10 thousand naira from that driver. If they have 10 victims in a day, that’s a hundred thousand naira, easy peasy.
And we wonder why the public is so irate; we wonder why a LASTMA official would be lynched in public, in broad daylight. We wonder why a mob can suddenly pounce on one of these people and beat him till breath leaves his body.
If the commercial bus driver that they harassed after us ever nabs a LASTMA official somewhere someday, it certainly won’t end well for the official. Even I myself must not be left alone with a LASTMA official because there is no telling what I will do.
Switching lanes close to the turning cost us 10 thousand naira, and I’m sure it does not even qualify as a traffic offence. Since Lagos state gave these glorified agberos uniform, they took it as a license to steal and destroy.
We have heard cases of LASTMA officials getting into people’s cars and stealing their phones or wallets while distracting them with threats if impounding their vehicle. One of them has put spikes on the road before, damaging my uncle’s tyre.
Are these lawless officials ever going to be checked? Is Lagos State ever going to protect her citizens or is the government going to allow these uniformed bandits continue to terrorize us?
And if so, how long before people take matters into their own hands? How long before people start to cover their own noses and spray chloroform whenever a LASTMA official jumps into their vehicle and then sell the unconscious official to kidnappers? How long before something is done to curb the menace of legitimized robbery? How many more officials have to be lynched before something is done to change the public perception of these greedy, thieving uniformed bandits? Why are these officials hated so much that someone would actually make a video recording of one of them being brutally beaten to death and share it online? Why are they so hated by the public that a mob would waste no time in killing any unfortunate official?
I recorded the whole conversation of the extortion process and I also managed to take a photo of the officials. I was able to get the name of the one on the right, Erinle O E.
Erinle O.E and another of his colleague
While I am not expecting them to face any disciplinary action, it is my hope that someday, decades from now, their children and grandchildren will Google their forebear’s name and discover that he is a rogue. Goodluck explaining to their offspring how and why they thought it was okay to extort money from the very same people they were supposed to ease the stress of Lagos traffic for.
Your own opinion articles and news/photo reports from your area are welcome at info@naij.com. Drop us an email at info@corp.naij.com if you've had a similar experience.
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