LASTMA bars junior officers from arresting traffic offenders

Babatunde Edu

The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, has ordered junior officers in its rank to stop arresting traffic offenders in the state forthwith.

The action was taken in a bid to checkmate aggressive enforcement of the state’s traffic law by LASTMA.

The General Manager of LASTMA, Engr. Babatunde Edu, disclosed this in his address at a public forum on the law, organised by the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, at the weekend.

According the Vanguard, Edu said the move was a spontaneous measure to respond to the complaints against aggressive law enforcement by junior officers.

He urged the public to note the name and report any junior officer who victimises or harasses them.

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 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”