53 impounded vehicles to be auctioned

By Oziegbe Okoeki

The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Taskforce) is to auction 31 vehicles whose owners have already been convicted by the court for driving against traffic.

It would also auction 22 impounded automobiles that were abandoned for over six months by their owners after arrest.

Chairman of the Agency, Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, disclosed that owners of the impounded vehicles who abandoned their cars have contravened the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law 2018.

Egbeyemi in a statement said that a public notice has been issued to owners of the vehicles to identify their vehicles at the Agency’s car parks in Ikorodu & Bolade-Oshodi.

“At the expiration of the one month verification exercise the Agency shall apply to the court for an order of ‘Public Auction’ where members of the public would have the opportunity to buy any of the vehicles”, the Chairman said.

Egbeyemi gave a clarification that the owners of the vehicles forfeited to the government pleaded guilty before Magistrate Omobola Salawu of the Lagos State Mobile Court at Oshodi after their arrest for driving against traffic.

He affirmed that in addition to forfeiture of the vehicles, each traffic offender was sentenced to 100 days ‘Community Service’ at any public institution.

The Chairman, however, maintained that with the State government’s zero-tolerance for violation of the law, the Agency will continue to prosecute traffic offenders until sanity is restored on our roads and law-abiding citizens are allowed to commute without being impeded by unlawful individuals.

Meanwhile, Egbeyemi also confirmed that over 7,350 impounded motorcycles are presently in custody of the Agency for plying restricted routes, including the highways and bridges across the State.

He stated that the Agency is awaiting further directives from the government in respect of the impounded motorcycles, disclosing that the motorcyclists were apprehended around Agege, Pen-Cinema, Apapa, Ikorodu, Mile 2, Obalende, Oyingbo, 2nd Rainbow, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ojota, Maryland, Yaba, Oshodi, Ikorodu Road, Apongbon, Ikeja and Iyana-Ipaja.