The Lagos State Task Force has dsiclosed that 4,477 motorcycles have been seized from traffic violators in various parts of the state from June 2019 till date.
Olayinka Egbeyemi, chairman of the task force, said that some of the motorcycles were, however, retrieved by their owners after receiving penalties while the rest were still in the custody task force.
According to Egbeyemi, after a six-month period, a court order would be sought and the unclaimed motorcycles destroyed by the Lagos State government to serve as a deterrent to others.
“We will crush them. There is a company that helps the government to crush them, after which they are sold as scrap.
“But the governor no longer wants them sold as scrap; he wants them crushed or destroyed totally. We have ordered crushing machines from abroad because the one in Epe is faulty.
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The task force chairman said that the new crushing machines would be arriving the state.
He said that the corporate commercial motorcycles such as Opay and Gokada, which were also seized, would have the same fate as no individual or organisation was above the law.
“The Gokada, Opay and those other corporate motorcycles rode against traffic (one-way) that is why the riders were arrested and the motorcycles confiscated.
“The penalty for such offences is total forfeiture.
The owners of those motorcycles (Gokada and Opay) were to be charged to court but some of them ran away.”
He noted that motorcyclists were usually hesitant to attempt retrieving their motorcycles because of the possibility of serving a jail term.
“Some of the motorcyclists came and the court issued them fine, while the others are usually afraid to come because one of the penalties for driving against traffic (one-way) is an option of one-year imprisonment and they are scared of going to jail,” he said.
