Some officers of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) caused public apprehension when they descended on some transporters in the Ikeja area of Lagos State on Friday afternoon.
A short video of the incident, which happened at some taxi parks near Ikeja Underbridge, was circulated on social media.
Some park officials who witnessed the incident told our reporter yesterday evening that it was a retaliatory attack.
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A park man (name withheld) explained that a traffic officer wanted to arrest a korope (small bus) driver and it resulted in a fiasco. In the process, the traffic officer’s uniform was torn. His colleagues intervened and further escalated the matter to their head office.
Just In: LASTMA Officers Run For Safety The Moment An*gry Road Users Att*acked Them For Attempting To Forcefully Impound A Driver’s Vehicle In Ikeja, Lagos State. pic.twitter.com/wYkRIDT2aH— X-Daily (@X_Dailly) July 5, 2024
“Some people had attacked a LASTMA official and torn his uniform while trying to arrest a driver. A task force second-in-command who was in a vehicle had to come down and shoot tear gas in order to rescue the officer. It was violent, but it did not escalate to our unit here. But they later came to attack our unit and others. It was purely retaliation,” the park man said.
“The officials alerted their office and reinforcements came. They came in vehicles, including four trucks. They mounted two of the trucks on the road from the bridge side and the other two on the road from Allen Avenue side. This effectively blocked passing vehicles.
“They resorted to the indiscriminate arrest of people. They disembarked some passengers from a vehicle that was not even from this area, even without the driver knowing what had happened.
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“After the situation calmed down, we sent a delegation to their commander. They have never arrested a vehicle from here. Today’s incident was an isolated case. Why make innocent people suffer for what they don’t know anything about? They disrupted our activities and made passengers stranded.”
A message sent to LASTMA via WhatsApp for comments on this story had not been responded to at press time.
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