28th January, 2024
By Isa Isawade
Some motorists in Lagos are calling on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to check the nefarious activities of the Central Business District (CBD) officers who are daily extorting members of the public who ply the Governor’s Road at Alausa, Ikeja.
The officers are fond of devising all manner of tactics to illegally extort money from unsuspecting motorists.
Sometime in April 2023, this reporter along with some others hired a Toyota Sienna Car from Ojota, Lagos to Osogbo, Osun State. On getting to the traffic junction by the Ndubusi Kanu park, while waiting for a green light two CBD officers jumped in our front and asked the driver to alight.
They accused the driver of using a private car for commercial purposes while plying the Governor’s Road! And that, hence they had to impound the vehicle. We were left off the hook after I came down from the vehicle and showed my identity card to the officers as a journalist.
Sunday Oyesanya, a sales officer was, however, not so lucky on Friday 26 January 2024 at about 1 pm when the vehicle he hired to convey some articles to Oregun, Lagos was ambushed by the CBD officers at Alausa and driven to their office.
They accused him of plying the axis with a big vehicle which was among the vehicles barred from plying the road, adding that big vehicles and vehicles whose plate numbers are in red are not allowed on the road.
They asked him to pay the sum of N250,000 or the vehicle would be impounded. All pleas by Sunday that the driver was from Ibadan, unaware of such a traffic rule in the area were rebuffed by the officers.
A ‘Traffic Offences’ form filled by one of the officers, Ajayi Solomon, was handed to Sunday.
This reporter was contacted on the phone by Sunday to help appeal to the officers to let them go, all to no avail. The same Ajayi Solomon told the reporter to call back in a few minutes, saying his boss who was in charge was on a phone call.
When called back Soloman said Sunday’s boss had called to agree on a certain amount, hence his boss would no longer entertain any call from the reporter.
In the end, Sunday and his boss had to part with the sum of N60,000 before releasing their vehicle towards the evening.
When they requested for the Lagos State revenue account to pay the money into, the officers got infuriated and threatened total impoundment, insisting it was cash or nothing.
Sunday narrated his story: “When we got to the road that leads to Alausa police station, our truck was hauled up by CBD (central business district) officers.
“We asked them what our offence was, we were told that we were plying the governor’s road which is not meant for big vehicles and vehicles whose plate numbers are in red colour.
“We pleaded with the officers and explained to them that we weren’t aware of such law and that the driver, an Ibadan man was plying the road for the first time.
“These officers were stiff-necked despite all our pleadings. We were forcefully taken to their office located along the passport office (NIS) road.
“On getting there, one of the officers, Ajayi Solomon, gave me a form to fill, but I didn’t oblige. He later came back with a filled form, stating our offence as ‘illegal route’ and the penalty to be ‘forfeiture to the state government’.
“After being dazed with such an onerous fine, I decided to offer Ajayi Solomon N10,000. He went inside to inform his boss about my offer, but his boss was furious about my offer.
“I then increased my offer to N30,000; he declined. I told him that it was the driver and I that would be responsible for the payment, and that we didn’t have much on us.
“I called someone to help plead with Ajayi’s boss. After their discussion, the person I called said I should try to raise between N50,000 and N100,000. But I told him we could not get up to that.
“Later, Ajayi told me that I should pay the money his boss discussed with the person he spoke with.
“At this juncture, I decided to speak with the boss myself (though he declined to speak with me).
“So, when I got to his boss, I resolved to increase my offer to N40,000. Again, he flew up and insisted that I must pay N100,000 else I would be taken to court.
“We were told that if we didn’t pay the N100,000 before closing hour, our truck’s tyres would be deflated.
“Later around 5p.m, the person that pleaded with him earlier called the boss again, begging to reduce the fine to N50,000. The boss still insisted that he had called the main office and told them the fine was N100,000.
“After much pleading, the boss decided to collect N60,000.
“So, when my boss sent the N60,000 to me, I asked Ajayi for the CBD account details so I could transfer the money to the office account. He said that the office doesn’t allow transfer payments, but only cash payments.
“At last, we had to go to a POS operator who removed charges of N3,000 while we paid the remaining N57,000 to them. They also refused to issue any receipt to us.”
P.M.NEWS findings revealed that Sunday’s story is symbolic of what many motorists go through in the hands of those unscrupulous elements around the state house in Lagos.
Most of them spoken to narrated similar experiences and called on the Governor to do something urgently.
Concerned authorities in Lagos should therefore investigate this particular unit of the Lagos government to rid it of bad eggs tarnishing the image of the government and ripping the state off revenues.