31 Vehicles Forfeited To Lagos Govt, 43 Motorists Fined For Traffic Offences

Thirty-one vehicles have been forfeited to the Lagos State government for moving against the traffic on one-way roads.

The Lagos State Mobile Court which ordered the forfeiture ruled that the vehicles contravened the State Traffic Law.

Mr Adebayo Taofiq, who is the Head of Public Affairs Unit at the Lagos State Task Force, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

The order of forfeiture was pronounced after the 31 defendants (drivers) pleaded ‘guilty’ to the ‘one-way’ traffic offence charged against them.

“These arraigned 31 drivers were charged for driving in the direction prohibited by law (one-way) punishable under Part (III) item 27 of the ‘Lagos State Transport Sector Reformed Law of 2018 and have been penalised accordingly,” the court held.

However, 43 other drivers arraigned for plying the BRT corridors and causing road obstructions were ordered to pay fines to the government, in accordance with the law and severity of their offence.

Reacting to the ruling, the Chairman of the Lagos State Environment and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit (Task Force), Olayinka Egbeyemi, confirmed 160 traffic offenders were billed to be arraigned before the court.

He noted that only 74 had so far appeared before the court and urged the remaining 86 offenders to do the same immediately.

Egbeyemi explained that the agency acted in response to a series of complaints from residents, particularly motorists that activities of one-way drivers were causing serious traffic on daily basis since the #EndSARS protest.

“It is painful that with a high level of enlightenment campaigns and several warnings by the government, motorists including private car owners are still driving against traffic, knowing fully well that the penalty for such offence is outright forfeiture of the said vehicle to the government,” he said.