There was pandemonium in the Liverpool, Apapa area of Lagos on
Thursday after an irate mob lynched a commander of the Lagos
State Transport Management Agency, Mr. Bakare Olatunji.
It was learnt that Olatunji, who was the zonal head of the agency
in the Apapa area, had led a team of officials to the area in a
patrol van to arrest erring motorists at about 11am.
PUNCH Metro gathered that tanker drivers, who parked their
vehicles on the road fled on sighting the enforcement agents.
The LASTMA van was said to have ran into an assistant driver
( motor boy ) while he struggled to escape arrest.
The boy, whose name had yet to be ascertained, was reportedly
sleeping by the roadside.
He died on the spot.
Angered by the boy’s death, his friends were said to have
regrouped and went on the rampage, killing Olatunji in the
process.
A mechanic in the area, Uthman Salau, said another LASTMA
official was injured, while others fled the scene.
He said, “The drivers were relaxing around 10.30am when they saw
a LASTMA van approaching. They felt the officials had come to
arrest them for parking vehicles indiscriminately. So, they ran
away. A motor boy, who was sleeping beside a tanker, was
woken up by the commotion. Before he could escape from the
spot, the LASTMA van hit him and he died instantly.
“One of the drivers, who saw the boy lying in a pool of blood,
called his colleagues and they stormed the scene with cutlasses,
bottles and all sorts of weapons. The officials fled with the van
except their team leader (Olatunji). They stabbed him to death.”
However, an eyewitness, who gave his name only as Issa, said the
operatives had flagged down a motorist, who refused to stop,
adding that the agency’s van knocked down the boy as they gave
the driver a chase.
“LASTMA agents are fond of extorting money from motorists on
roads around here. Their leader waited behind after his men had
fled, thinking that he could pacify the angry youth. But he was not
lucky. They killed him,” he said.
A driver, who did not disclose his name, said he got to the scene
after Olatunji had been killed.
“I am not sure whether the LASTMA officials were chasing
somebody or not. What I learnt was that the boy was killed by
their van, which sparked off the protest and the eventual killing of
one of the officials,” he added.
A LASTMA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said his
colleagues had been under fire for lax enforcement which made
them to intensify operations in the area.
He said, “Ordinarily, they would not have gone for operations in
that area. However, two weeks ago, the management was angry
that we have not performed to expectation in terms of
enforcement. Each zone was asked to generate N12m by December
19. So, we are under pressure to deliver. That is the reality we are
battling with.”
LASTMA spokesperson, Mahmud Hassan, said investigation had
commenced to ascertain the cause of the incident. He, however,
refuted the claim that the agency was mandated to generate
revenue.
He said, “I can confirm his (Olatunji’s) death. We are still
investigating and I will get back to you. The Lagos State
Government did not set up LASTMA as a revenue generation
agency. We are there to provide services to the good people of
the state. So, we are not after generating revenue. What we are
after is safety on Lagos roads and our men are professional. That
is our primary duty and responsibility and that is what we have
been doing day and night.
“No target is given to anybody. We are not compelled under any
circumstance to meet certain target at a particular time of the
month or year.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos,
in a text message, said the case was under investigation.
punchng.com/mob-kills-lastma-commander-motor-boys-death/
*modified*
Contrary to the post painting him a saint, I knew there was no smoke without fire. LASTMA officers are probably more corrupt than the NPF are. A post surfaced on NL weeks ago with very graphics pictures of a guy tortured to death for allegedly stealing the phone of soldier's girlfriend. Why is no one talking about that? Trigger-happy policemen murder civilians on a daily basis but no one talks about it. But when one of them dies, they expect us all to howl.
Lalasticlala

okay

LadyF...abeg vamut for there



Don't be a destiny blocker

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life!
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#junglejustice, Never the solution!

I would have loved to say the LASTMA Boss died in the line of duty, but it's really hard to. The only way the LASTMA van could have killed the poor motor boy is either their driving was terrible, or they made a deliberate attempt to hit him in order to halt his escape. And who could blame the irate mob? They knew they'd never get true justice against the government officials!

eeyah