OlujobaSamuel: Yes, I think it is legally wrong. No one should dispose off another party asset except through the order of a court(superior court) that is, high court or its equivalent with a temporary forfeiture and final forfeiture order obtained by the relevant agency. This applies to cow, car, house, jewellery and any other item of value. But this is Naija, we operate by law of the rulers, so every ruler determines the law to follow, if Na lie, ask the Terrorist in Chief
A Court will not order that it is Lawful to "Steal" what Does Not Belong to You! (A Corrupt Judge will)
If we apply emotions we can say Lagos state is wrong, however the punishment for this traffic offences is one year imprisonment and forfeiture but they apply forfeiture usually. The forfeiture is always subject to court order. As regards selling off it has been argued that whatever happens after the forfeiture is up to Lagos State Govt decision.
No they are not.. some states in America crush cars
We really need to understand that more people die yearly as a result of violating traffic laws leading to accidents than the number of people Bokoharam kill yearly
Only stiffer penalties would deter dangerous driving that causes death of innocent people
The question is not whether cars are crushed or not. The question is whether it's right to crush a car due to road offences. What you shared has to do with theft. Besides, I don't understand why Nigerians always say "in America..." while defending thier views. We all know the US isn't perfect but we're always quick to use them as an example whenever what they do happens to agree with our opinion by chance.
I don't think it's sane to crush anyone's car without issuing a couple de tickets or its equivalent in terms of incidence. The western world you use as a reference does this.
The "Mobile court" is Not a True Court, it is rather lawyers appointed by Thieves in Governance, to Steal Private Property through what they call "law".
The Law can never ever prescribe the doing of a Wrong! Never. But thieves will say that the law prescribed such!
They also have to check corrupt practices by some of their officers that deliberately lead unsuspecting drivers into the wrong lane so they could be held guilty of violating traffic laws
They're both private property so it's comparable. They're both worth around the same amount depending on the age of the vehicle. I don't get why you're acting dumb. Now answer what's the logical difference between the state siezing a cow and car then auctioning?
Judicial processes: My opposition to the practice stemmed from the fact that the state authorities were auctioning vehicles without going through judicial processes. Vehicles were impounded, the Task Force waited for 2 months and then they auctioned the vehicles. These processes could obviously easily have been abused..
Horse Sheet! The Law Can Not Be Used To Perpetrate A Wrong! The Law Can Do No Wrong is The Highest Law.
You have a Traffic Problem, it is your job to resolve it. In a small state as Lagos, Traffic Problems were created by the same Thieves in governance selling lands without care and putting a stop because road infrastructure was shrinking also.
Now, they are Stealing your property or you prefer the destruction of your property because they are overwhelmed with the problem, they created.
Horse Sheet! The Law Can Not Be Used To Perpetrate A Wrong! The Law Can Do No Wrong is The Highest Law.
You have a Traffic Problem, it is your job to resolve it. In a small state as Lagos, Traffic Problems were created by the same Thieves in governance selling lands without care and putting a stop because road infrastructure was shrinking also.
Now, they are Stealing your property or you prefer the destruction of your property because they are overwhelmed with the problem, they created.
Absolute and total crap! Is it the government that is driving against the flow of traffic?? Don't people also commit traffic offences outside Nigeria?? If that's the case then nobody should be punished for any offence. An armed robber attacks your house, kills your children and steals your property? Let him go, it's government's fault! What a load of nonsense!
naptu2: I have been on the receiving end of this thing twice.
Last year I had to assist a relative of mine to buy back her car because her driver stupidly drove against the flow of traffic. In 2005 I followed someone to search for his car after LASTMA towed it away. It still hasn't, wouldn't and can't make me go against the policy. In fact, it was last year when I discovered that people can buy back their vehicles at the auction that I became convinced that crushing the cars is the right way to go.
This is not about supporting any government. I have a right to move around Lagos without some lunatic trying to kill me by driving against the flow of traffic and I will fully support anything that protects that right.
Nickshrapnel: I think first time offenders should be made to pay fine and have their car impounded, while frequent offenders should have their vehicle crushed.
Rubbish! The government said they would take care of the citizens good welfare, destruction of personal property is not good welfare but wickedness.
They benefited from the sale of limited land and now it is time to harvest their products, they citizens are the ones to pay for their benefit?
If this is not Fraud, then people do not know the meaning of Fraud!
I think heavy fine should be imposed on them instead of selling off their properties and also, same law should be applied on all motorist, including danfo, korope, trailers, okada and keke napep drivers.
Nickshrapnel: I think first time offenders should be made to pay fine and have their car impounded, while frequent offenders should have their vehicle crushed.
Absolute and total crap! Is it the government that is driving against the flow of traffic?? Don't people also commit traffic offences outside Nigeria?? If that's the case then nobody should be punished for any offence. An armed robber attacks your house, kills your children and steals your property? Let him go, it's government's fault! What a load of nonsense!
Did Lagos in the 80s have this problem? No! Why, Availability of Land.
For a small state, everything is Limited and if Limited, it means when full it can take no more. But the greedy theives we give rule choose gain over Rule, exactly as Filling up 300 bed prison with 1,500 prisoners and still making a rule that no prisoner should be seen laying together.
It is unreasonable!
Clear the traffic, Obstructions and return peoples' money for the lands bought near road infrastructure and see if the Lagos traffic would not go away.
Ogun State has lands and with good connectivity, a Resident in Benin can work in Lagos.
The Law can Not and Should not be used to Do A Wrong!
Blue3k: Why do certain people feel its wrong for Lagos to auction seized vehicles but it's right for Ondo to auction Siezed Cattle?
A very sensitive question.... let's perceive it from this angle, if violating public laws in such manner is not well meted by actioning, people will not stop derailing and stabbing the face of law hence, laws and orders will never be well institutionalized... my opinion though
I'm not disputing such nor the sufficiency of the penalty against the crime. My response is on the legality of the process. Using mobile court to auction off property is wrong, it's just like a magistrate court giving order for building demolition.
The mobile court is mainly there to try the offender and the stipulated penalty if found guilty is three months jail time and forfeiture of car to the state.
Did Lagos in the 80s have this problem? No! Why, Availability of Land.
For a small state, everything is Limited and if Limited, it means when full it can take no more. But the greedy theives we give rule choose gain over Rule, exactly as Filling up 300 bed prison with 1,500 prisoners and still making a rule that no prisoner should be seen laying together.
It is unreasonable!
Clear the traffic, Obstructions and return peoples' money for the lands bought near road infrastructure and see if the Lagos traffic would not go away.
Ogun State has lands and with good connectivity, a Resident in Benin can work in Lagos.
The Law can Not and Should not be used to Do A Wrong!
What the heck! How can you say that Lagos did not have this problem in the 1980s! It was worse! Did you witness the great traffic jam of 1989? I was stuck in it. Did you not see the hell people went through to get from Island to Mainland?? Do you remember that the 3rd Mainland Bridge ended at Ebute Metta and did you witness what people went through on Herbert Macaulay Way??
Anyway, this is a traffic jam in China.
naptu2: Massive traffic jam in China, but nobody is driving against the flow of traffic. Traffic jams are not an excuse.
I'll be back to tell you about the crazy traffic jams that I personally witnessed in the 1980s and the way that people drove against the flow of traffic.
I have been on the receiving end of this thing twice.
Last year I had to assist a relative of mine to buy back her car because her driver stupidly drove against the flow of traffic. In 2005 I followed someone to search for his car after LASTMA towed it away. It still hasn't, wouldn't and can't make me go against the policy. In fact, it was last year when I discovered that people can buy back their vehicles at the auction that I became convinced that crushing the cars is the right way to go.
This is not about supporting any government. I have a right to move around Lagos without some lunatic trying to kill me by driving against the flow of traffic and I will fully support anything that protects that right.
When someone is trying to kill you The Law has Already Provided for the Remedy (Damages) and Prosecution of him.
This is Already Step 1 of the Offenders wahala.
Step.2 is for anyone who says he wants to Rule to Resolve it, WITHOUT DOING A WRONG and Breaking The Law by Infringing on Rights.
For The Law is No One, whether the Ruler or the ruled, Must Do A Wrong!
Two Wrongs are Two Wrongs, they can never become a Right!
When someone comes against me, I am gonna stand in his way, take down his number and Sue him for damages for threat to life, loss of income, loss of time, undue suffering and any other unlawful inconvenience he has occasioned!
What the heck! How can you say that Lagos did not have this problem in the 1980s! It was worse! Did you witness the great traffic jam of 1989? I was stuck in it. Did you not see the hell people went through to get from Island to Mainland?? Do you remember that the 3rd Mainland Bridge ended at Ebute Metta and did you witness what people went through on Herbert Macaulay Way??
Ah, ore, I chop that traffic oh, but everything was stupidly put on Lagos island then, Everything, State House, Defence Hq, National Assembly, Ministry of this and Ministry of that, all packed together at Onikan, and everybody was a civil servant, closing at 4O'Clock and not living on the Island.
With Only 2 Bridges for escape, Haba, Molue taught us the significance of having diverse exit, else windows will become thorough-fares!
Did Lagos in the 80s have this problem? No! Why, Availability of Land.
For a small state, everything is Limited and if Limited, it means when full it can take no more. But the greedy theives we give rule choose gain over Rule, exactly as Filling up 300 bed prison with 1,500 prisoners and still making a rule that no prisoner should be seen laying together.
It is unreasonable!
Clear the traffic, Obstructions and return peoples' money for the lands bought near road infrastructure and see if the Lagos traffic would not go away.
Ogun State has lands and with good connectivity, a Resident in Benin can work in Lagos.
The Law can Not and Should not be used to Do A Wrong!
1)
johnie: In the seventies, only the Carter(First) and Eko (Second) Bridges linked the Island with the mainland.
Carter bridge was constructed by the colonial government while the military ( I believe Gowon) built the Eko Bridge.
The odd and even number concept was adopted to reduce vehicular movement in the seventies. Odd-number vehicles could ply the major roads on particular days and even-number cars on the other days. Ojuelegba and Yaba were two major bottlenecks in those days. Fela's song Ojuelegba , was about the regular confusion at the place. Whenever we were going to school and climbed the overhead bridge at Jibowu (from where we could clearly see the traffic situation at Yaba), my dad would remark Yaba O wo loni o! - meaning Yaba is messed up today.
In those days, people such as my parents had to have two cars -one even and the other odd numbered. My dad still advises me today to ensure that my cars are evenly spread between odd and even - just in case the number regime returns!
The Third Mainland Bridge was constructed by the Babangida government and was actually named after him (Ibrahim Babangida Boulevard) on completion. That name did not stick particularly because of the June 12 Saga which shortly followed the opening of the bridge. In the first phase of the project, Adeniji to Adekunle was done and open to traffic. When completed, the Adekunle-Oworo section of the bridge was not open to traffic for about six months.
Before the Adekunle-Oworo section was opened, I worked variously at Lagos Island and VI and had to go through Adekunle to join Ikorodu road. That stretch from the Third Mainland Bride through Herbert Macaulay was hell. The traffic used to be very bad. Thank God that in those days, the incidence of robbery in the traffic hadn't started (at least I neither experienced nor heard of it).
That's how we used to "cope" then.
2
delpee: Johnnie is sooo right! I remember that my early working life was hellish cos we had to pass through congested Herbert Macaulay to Adekunle to link the bridge. Short cuts like passing through Iwaya/Makoko never made a significant difference. Had to leave home (Yaba area)at around 6a.m. then to get to Marina by 8a.m. Many times I would still get to work late. Journey back home was the same. The odd numbers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, even on Tuesdays and Thursdays never made a difference cos people simply bought 2 cars to counter the directive. You could get 'panel van" or beetle for less 3000 naira (hope i remembered correctly) and bigger cars like Toyota saloon and Peugeot for between 4000 and 6000 naira which you paid for over a four year period.
The day the bridge was finally opened, many people walked the stretch from Oworonshoki to Adekunle in excitement not to mention Shina Peters entertainment. Its so sad that IBB messed up big time with June 12. He deserves accolades for completing the bridge even if he was harassed by Rasaki. Today's leaders wont care a hoot about being harassed.
4
naptu2: In 1989 the Eko Bridge was closed for repairs. This created huge traffic jams on 3rd Mainland Bridge (Adeniji-Adekunle).
As a result the government had to implement special measures. They converted the left side carriageway on Herbert Macaulay Road into a two way road. Previously, the right side of the carriageway was for traffic heading from 3rd Mainland Bridge to Yaba, while the left side was for traffic heading from Yaba to the bridge. This special measure is still in place today.
I feel compelled to make this explanation because you are the second person that I've seen in the past week that has claimed that Babangida built the entire Third Mainland Bridge.
Once upon a time traffic flowed from the Mainland onto the Island via Carter Bridge. It was distributed across the Island via Nnamdi Azikiwe Road and Broad Street. Broad Street was the financial capital of Nigeria and Nnamdi Azikiwe Street was the home to several large markets, so, as you can guess, they were plagued with massive traffic jams.
The government concieved the idea of building a ring road around Lagos Island and also building several entrances/exits to/from the Ring Road in order to reduce traffic in Central Lagos.
General Yakubu Gowon was thd head of state at that time, Alhaji Femi Okunnu was the commissioner (minister) for works (he was replaced by Obasanjo in 1974) and Colonel Mobolaji Johnson was the Lagos State governor.
What is Ring Road?
Look at the orange road in the first map below. Ring Road begins at the end of Third Mainland Bridge, at a place known as Adeniji Bus Stop, it goes past Ilubirin, Ikoyi Foreshore, Obalende, Onikan, Marina and ends up back at Adeniji Adele.
Marina used to be a beach, like Unilag Water Front. The government poured concrete on it and turned it into a road. The official name of the road is Ring Road, but people refer to it as "Outer Marina".
There was also a little river that separated Lagos Island from Ikoyi. It was called MacGregor Canal. The government reduced the width of the river, gave it concrete sides (instead of the previous sand banks) and it became the giant gutter that you see at Obalende.
I know people who are still angry with Gowon for converting sand into concrete.
Third Mainland Bridge
The government rebuilt Carter Bridge and built Eko Bridge (which was completed in 1975). The government also had an idea of a bridge that people coming from outside Lagos can use to access Lagos Island. This bridge will substantially bypass the mainland and bring traffic directly on to the Ring Road. It would also decongest Ikorodu Road and the Carter and Eko Bridge.
Serious discussions about the "Third Axial Bridge" began in 1974 or 1975 and the first phase was commissioned by President Shehu Shagari on September 30th, 1980 (to mark Nigeria's 20th anniversary).
The Third Mainland Bridge was being used in the 1980s (before Babangida became president), but you had to get off the bridge at the Ebute Metta/Yaba exit (Look at the second map below. You can see the exit at the place where the words "Third Mainland Bridge" is written). There were barriers across the road that prevented you from going further and when you exit the bridge, you could see the place where the bridge came to an abrupt end.
This meant that you had to take Herbert Macaulay Way and Ikorodu Road if you were going to Ikeja and this also meant that there were massive traffic jams on Herbert Macaulay Way.
I remember the great traffic jam of 1989. Eko Bridge was closed for repairs and everybody had to use either Third Mainland Bridge or Carter Bridge.
There was a Queens College girl in my house and she was meant to come home with the neighbours by 3 o'clock. 3 became 4 and then 5 o'clock and she was not home. I phoned the neighbours and they had no idea what was going on. So my driver and I went in search of the two missing girls. The traffic jam was incredible. We were at a standstill on Third Mainland Bridge and when we eventually got to Herbert Macaulay Way I discovered that people were driving against the flow of traffic and cars were facing each other with no where to go.
Policemen from Adekunle and Sabo police stations were overwhelmed and they just hung around and exchanged jokes with motorists.
We eventually got to Queens College and were told that the girls had already gone home and we went back home, got in after dark to discover that she was already asleep.
Julius Berger extended the bridge by a few metres in 1988 and then abandoned it again.
I'll quote Babangida's speech at the commissioning of the second phase of the bridge in 1990. He said that a new governor was appointed in Lagos and the man came to discuss the Third Mainland Bridge with him. He said that the man kept on coming to his office almost everyday to disturb him about the Third Mainland Bridge. He said that he had to tell his secretary not to allow Governor Rasaki into his office again. He said that he knew that he had to complete the bridge if he wanted peace (Governor Rasaki was laughing behind him).
The bridge was completed in 1990 and in 1991, when the Federal Government was moving from Lagos to Abuja, the section of the bridge from Ebute Metta to Oworonshoki was renamed IBB Bridge (I still have a video of that ceremony).
So you see, Gowon's government conceived the Third Mainland Bridge, Shagari commissioned the first phase and Babangida commissioned the second phase.
The mobile court is mainly there to try the offender and the stipulated penalty if found guilty is three months jail time and forfeiture of car to the state.
Mobile Court can try offenders and convict them, no doubt about that, but they can't declare that item of value be auctioned off, a superior court otherwise known as court of records are vested with such power. Imagine such asset is tied to a loan? What will happen? If such should go viral, that is, other states going same route, someone will definitely challenge it in court and we are going to see the true stance of the law.
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