Stop terrorising Lagosians, Fashola tells LASTMA, KIA

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

Lagos state Governor, Babatunde yesterday warned officials of the Lagos state Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) to stop terrorising residents of the state.

The governor also called on the Nigerian Police to desist from extorting money from motorcycle operators, saying the state government would not tolerate a situation where some people would capitalize on the good intentioned policies of the government to do evil and hurt Lagosians.

Fashola, while addressing officials of LASTMA and KAI in Lagos, said such acts give the state government a bad name.

He urged the officials to stop extorting money from motorists and desist from harassing and seizing goods belonging to traders under the guise of keeping Lagos clean.

Fashola told the officials to always discharge their responsibilities in a manner that the state would not be portrayed in a bad light before the public.

“Your primary responsibility is to keep Lagos clean. It is very simple; because really and truly, we cannot deliver on our responsibility to save life and property if the city is dirty. Disease will thrive in a dirty environment. But keeping Lagos clean does not mean harassing market women. Keeping Lagos clean does not mean seizing their goods because they are part of this economy,” he warned KAI officials.

Addressing LASTMA officials, Fashola said: “Your primary responsibility is to move traffic. If you have to make a choice between moving traffic and letting an offender go, let the offender go. I don’t need him; we need to keep traffic moving, because moving traffic is the economy.

He also warned LASTMA officials against extorting money from drivers and commuters, saying, “there are very few people within both organizations (LASTMA and KAI), and I stress that word, a few people within both organizations who want to give you a bad name and we must move very quickly to find out those people and show them where they belong.”

The governor added that there were also people who pose as KAI and LASTMA officials with fake uniforms.

He appealed to members of the public to be vigilant and look out for people who might want to pose as KAI or LASTMA officials to dupe them with fake uniforms of any of the agencies without name tags, warning that such people were not government staff.