Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State did the appropriate thing during his condolence visit to the family of a Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) official, Ganiyu Oyeshina, who died after he was attacked by two trailer drivers in the Sifax-Iganmu area of Apapa in Lagos.
He not only condoled with them, he also vowed to bring the killers to book. That is what is expected of a leader in the circumstance.
Oyeshina was stoned by the drivers around 5pm on November 29, when he and his team were in the area to clear the trucks obstructing free flow of traffic on the highway.
An official of the agency said that “they were on normal enforcement in the area when they were attacked.
Trucks are parked indiscriminately, causing serious traffic in that area. They had gone there to enforce the traffic law. They wanted to tow one of those trucks when the drivers and some hoodlums attacked them.”
Since its establishment on July 15, 2000, LASTMA has lost some of its personnel to such attacks. On November 18, last year, a LASTMA official, Rotimi Adeyemo, was gunned down by a Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) officer, Inspector Olakunle Olonade, at the Iyana-Ipaja area of Lagos, after the LASTMA official accused him of violating a traffic law. The police officer was said to have brought out a gun that he used to kill the traffic officer.
An angry mob however descended on him and beat him to a pulp. He died while being rushed to the hospital. The then Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, however did the needful by ordering Olonade’s posthumous trial and dismissal from the force for his action.
Similarly, in December 2016, a LASTMA commander, Mr Bakare Olatunji, was beaten to death by a mob at the same Apapa area. Olatunji had led a team to Liverpool on traffic law enforcement when the sad incident, triggered by the alleged killing of an assistant driver (motor boy) by a LASTMA van occurred.
Governor Sanwo-Olu not only lamented Oyeshina’s death, he also spoke of the injuries sustained by some LASTMA officials in the course of duty. “In the last 48 hours, we have had heavy brutality on men of LASTMA who were doing their work.
We have had people whose legs were amputated in the last 48 hours while on the assignment that was given to them to bring about enforcement of our laws and order.
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“I think this is the level at which we need to make this very stern warning that we will not stop at ensuring that we implement and enforce our laws, not minding which force is involved”, he said,
The truth of the matter is that traffic laws are being obeyed more in the breach on the streets of Lagos, especially by commercial motorcyclists, commercial bus drivers, drivers of articulated vehicles and even some private car owners that one should naturally think would always act on the side of sanity.
It would appear they all took a cue from the body language of the immediate past administration in the state under which traffic laws were flagrantly disobeyed.
That government literally destroyed virtually every achievement that the preceding administrations made concerning returning sanity to Lagos roads on the altar of politics.
We appreciate the governor’s concern on these sad incidents and urge him to walk the talk. The killers must not go scot-free; they must be made to face the law so that other miscreants who kill at the slightest provocation can begin to value human life.
Criminals should not get away with the impression that they can do and undo without having their comeuppance. Serving officials are demoralised when government stands aloof when their colleagues are killed in the line of duty as in the cases under reference.
But their morale is boosted when the government which sent them stands by them in times of trouble.
Lagos State cannot be investing huge resources on these officials only to have their lives terminated by miscreants who constitute nothing but a nuisance to the public. The time to end such impunity is now.
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