has ordered the forfeiture of 31 vehicles to the state
government.
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 obtained by
Channels Television 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.
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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.