Brutal Attacks On LASTMA Officers

When the Lagos State Traffic Mangement Authority, LASTMA, official left home on 31 December, 2010, he never thought anything fatal could happen to him. In his usual vivaciousness, Odusanya, 35, who hails from Ogun State, went on his duty in Ketu area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

His duty was on the BRT corridor and to ensure that no unauthorised vehicle or motorcycle plies the dedicated lane.  In a flash, a motorcycle(okada) rider, sped through the BRT lane; the LASTMA officers mobilised and arrested him.

From nowhere, a policeman appeared and engaged  the LASTMA officers in a brawl over the okada that was impounded. At this juncture, Odusanya internvened in the matter. According to him,  the policeman, Kehinde Oladejo, at this point struck Odunsanya, using the key in his hand to puncture his left eye, blinding the eye immediately.

Odusanya now wears dark goggles to enable him see with the remaining eye, which is gradually being  infected. The condition of Odusanya’s eyes now is nauseating to  anyone who  sees them as a thick white substance now oozes from the eyes.

According to him, “We impounded a motorcycle on BRT lane. A guy came and said he was a policeman and picked up a quarrel with our men.  I asked him what happened and he punched me, using the key in his hand to puncture my left eye.  I cannot see with the eye anymore.

“The doctors said they will operate on the eye and because of the ongoing strike, nothing has been done. I was giving drugs which I am taking but for now, I am not receiving treatment.”

He said the erring policeman was arrested and handed over to the police authorities, adding that he heard recently that the police officer had been released sent on a course.

The state of the eyes is so serious that if nothing urgent is done,  Odusanya might completely go blind within a short time as the right eye he now uses to see is getting affected.

Odusanya’s case is one of the several attacks unleashed on LASTMA officers across the state, leaving many maimed or killed  in their duty to ensure free flow of traffic on Lagos roads.

Though, some some LASTMA officers could be accused of  overzealousness, the rate at which they are being viciously attacked by Lagosians, especially policmen and soldiers, is worrisome.

Another LASTMA officer, Ismaila Olalekan, was stabbed on his rib and head by a police officer at Onipanu area of Lagos, leaving him in a pool of his blood on 11 January, 2011. The police officer was, however, arrested.

When P.M. NEWS visited him in his one-room apartment in Lagos Island, Olalekan, 32, narrated his ordeal in the hands of the policeman who wanted to stab him on his stomach, but for his fastness in evading the strikewhich then landed on his side.

According to him, he and his boss arrested a commercial bus plying the BRT lane and was about to take it to LASTMA’s office when a policeman appeared from nowhere at Obanikoro area and ordered us to release the bus driver or he would stab me.

“My boss told me to let the bus go and I did so.  We later found the same bus on the same BRT lane at Onipanu and we arrested him again.  From nowhere, the same policeman appeared again.  He wanted to stab me but I escaped in a vehicle. He took a bike and with two of his colleagues pursued me,” he explained.

He said he ran out of  luck as he was caught up in traffic jam by the police officer who allegedly dragged him down from the vehicle and stabbed him.

He said the policeman wanted to escape but was caught by passers-by.  According to him, the policeman was held down till the arrival of men of the LASTMA police unit who arrested him.

Another gory tale was that of a female head of operation of LASTMA, Mrs. O.O Adegeye, who was knocked down by a vehicle that was  obstructing free flow of traffic on Oju Olobun Street, Victoria Island, on 4 February, 2011, leaving the her in a pool of  her blood.

“On Friday, 4 February, 2011 at about 5.12 pm, a  Mercedes Benz Jeep ‘ML350’ was wrongly parked on Oju Olobun Street, Victoria Island.  The parking was done in such a way that it was impeding the movement of traffic on the street.

“The fact that the vehicle was abandoned on the road without anybody to give useful information on the whereabouts of the driver,  made me to call for a tow van,” he explained.

The owner of the vehicle later showed up and entered his vehicle while a police officer attached to LASTMA entered with him.  Instead of the man to drive to LASTMA’s office, he drove to Saka Jojo Street.

Adegeye led her team to Saka Jojo Street where she attempted to talk to the owner of the vehicle, “but he told me that if I did not leave the road, he would use the jeep to hit me.  I had no other option than to leave the road for him.

“The vehicle made a u-turn in a bid to head for LASTMA’s office but when he sited me on the walkway, he veered onto the walkway and knocked me down. I was later rushed to the hospital,” she narrated.

The injuries she sustained were so serious that she lost a lot of blood as she bled profusely from her head and leg.

The case was reported at the Bar Beach Police Station while the vehicle was impounded and parked at the LASTMA Commander’s office at Olowu, Lagos Island.

If Adegeye’s travail was not bad enough, that of 57-year-old  Muhammed Ogunkola, a LASTMA officer, popularly known as Kabuki is more devastating.  For over a year, he has been in the hospital after he was knocked down by a jeep and had his leg broken.

“My travail started on 22 February, 2010.  I was on duty but I took permission to go home.  On getting to Ilupeju by-pass by First Bank, I alighted from the bus.  A jeep took one way and unfortunately hit me.

“A bone removed from my leg and I was in pain.  The driver of the jeep did not stop to look at the damage he had done. A pastor came to my aid and I was taken to Gbagada General Hospital where I did series of x-ray and four operations on the leg,” he explained.

As he sat in his house at Ilupeju, Kabuki gave thanks to God that he is still alive, but he now walks with the aid of clutches with severe pains on the affected leg. He said he had spent a fortune trying to take care of himself, adding that he still needs help urgently.

“I spend N8, 700 weekly on drugs alone.  I took N800, 000 from the cooperative and I have exausted it. People from outside are the ones now helping me,” he stated.

Another LASTMA officer, 37-year-old Balogun Babatunde, a trooper was knocked down by a trailer at Guiness Road, off Oba Akran last year. He now walks with the aid of a clutches.

According to him, he was riding a motorbike on the road at night when a trailer, which wanted to avoid a pothole suddenly swerved and hit him. He said the driver of the vehicle did not stop when he noticed that he was a LASTMA officer.

He said since then, he has not been able to walk straight.  He, however,  thanked God that he is still alive to tell the story.

As for Ojo Rasak, he had a broken leg when he fell off a moving vehicle on 31 January, 2011 at Tollgate area of Lagos.

Narrating his ordeal at his Mushin residence, he said:  “At exactly 12:15 pm that day, I saw a vehicle parked along the road  around the tollgate without the driver inside.”

He said that as he was about to get into the vehicle, the driver quickly got in and started the vehicle. He said his hand got trapped as he wanted to get in and stop the driver from getting away, leaving him  suspended at the door side.  He said he held on so that he would not fall but when the vehicle increased speed, he fell off and broke his leg. “I was crying when I broke my leg. The driver of that vehicle, perhaps, had a hidden agenda; maybe to kill a LASTMA officer,” he stated.

The Chief Executive Officer, LASTMA, Mr. Young Arabamen, had condemned the rate at which officers of the authority were being attacked by Lagosians, appealing to the public to desist from doing so as the outfit was out to protect their interest.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, also lamented the public’s attitude to LASTMA officers, saying that members of the public should stop their violence against men of the outfit.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga

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