LASG declares zero tolerance for extortion of motorists

…to charge 11 arrested culprits

The Lagos State government has declared zero tolerance for the extortion of residents, especially motorists, by miscreants parading themselves as enforcement officers.

Olawale Musa, permanent secretary, the Ministry of Transportation, gave this warning while addressing journalists after the arrest of eleven fake enforcement officers who extort money daily from unsuspecting motorists at the state’s Ibeju-Lekki junction and Akodo area.

Musa noted that the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration would not fold its arms and allow some unscrupulous elements to continue to bring hardship to its citizens, especially during this period of economic challenges in the country.

“We have announced severally that nobody is allowed to collect money for local government on the street of Lagos and the government has set up a team to ensure that anybody that does that is picked up and from that Lekki axis, we had this report with the aid of the Governor’s Monitoring Team, we arrested 11 people collecting money illegally on the guise that they work for one local government or the other.

“They will be charged to court to explain themselves and I want to sound a note of warning to others that do the same thing that we will not relent, the government is all out for them, we advised them to desist because we will be on the neck of any local government that is doing this.

“If you have any issue, call us and we will come and address it, but when you have people coming on the road on the guise that you want to have revenue at this hard time, collecting money from motorists on the road; it is illegal in Lagos State, resist it.”

Musa added that it was illegal for any local government area in the state to deploy people on the roads as it negates the Lagos State Road Traffic Law, Section Eighteen, 2018 which empowers only the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to carry out such operations on the roads.