My findings over the past few years have shown that LASTMA or KAI uniform is what you need to unofficially misbehave in an official capacity – it is the license to misbehave in Lagos state. LASTMA is the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority saddled with the responsibility of managing traffic and everything associated with vehicular movement in Lagos state while the KAI brigade’s responsibility is to kick against indiscipline, both organizations were established by and subject to Lagos state laws.
Several stories abound about the excesses of LASTMA officials in every part of Lagos, they have over stepped their bounds severally and the only thing they understand about traffic management is towing of vehicles and if you question or try to prove a point to the officials, your fine increases. Of particular interest is the just decided case between Jonathan Odutola and LASTMA where Justice Okon Abang of the FederAL High Court in Lagos said that LATMA lacked the power to impose fines on traffic offenders in Lagos state, the judge held that sections 9,11,12 and 13 of laws establishing LASTMA were unconstitutional and in contrast to section 36 of the constitution. LASTMA can arrest offenders but cannot impose fines on them as LASTMA cannot be a judge in its own case. In some areas, the police collaborate with the LASTMA officials to extort you of your money, the said Jonathan Odutola narrated that sometimes in march 2011 after his car broke down on the third mainland bridge, he got the beaten of his life courtesy of the Nigerian police and his vehicle was towed to LASTMA premises where the illegal fine was imposed, it is only in lagos state that anything and everything can amount to a traffic offence.
The operations of KAI brigade is the most appalling. They have ‘kai miscreants’ that goes after the street traders, they are hired to run after
the street traders on the high way, arrest them, beat them up and collect their wares, there is a seventy percent probability that somebody is being chased on the lagos high way by the ‘kai miscreants’ as you read this write-up. Some few months back, the KAI brigade stationed their ‘mobile prison’(vehicle) on the oshodi express way (assisted by the police) to arrest those that refused to use the pedestrian bridge, while the arrests were not illegal, they could have turned back the offenders and direct them to use the pedestrian bridge instead of hiring miscreants to run after them on a very busy road like the oshodi express road. It is obvious that if those ‘kai miscreants’ don’t collect remuneration, they would have invested their energy on some other profitable things rather than advertising their nuisance value.
During the months leading to the general elections in Nigeria, KAI and LASTMA officials systematically reduced their scope of operations in order not to send the wrong signal to the electorate but the PDP failed to capitalize on it to score a political point, immediately after ACN was
declared the winner in lagos state; LASTMA and KAI vehicles returned to their duty post. Their acronyms have become a house hold name for fear and their activities are a ‘misbehavior-meister’.
It is note worthy to commend some of the activities of KAI and LASTMA officials (who are in the minority) on the management of lagos traffic jam in some sensitive and ever busy roads on their management of the security risks pose by tramps on the lagos high way
LASTMA deserves to offer an official apology to the entire people of Lagos (especially the Danfo drivers) for all the accumulated illegal fines they have levied and collected from motorist on the lagos roads over the years, we know that these agencies are part of the huge income generating agencies for the lagos state government and also employment creation avenues for the citizens in order to sustain the ‘eko onibaje’ campaign. The lesson here is that mega cities around the world don’t have thugs and miscreants as part of their law enforcement agents, where officials are found wanting in their duty, they should face the appropriate disciplinary actions and lastly LASTMA and KAI officials need to be told that their uniforms are not a license to misbehave. ‘Eko oni baje o’
Oyede saheed (alias chief humanbeing) writes from the department of insurance, university of lagos
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