Lagos: mobile court orders forfeiture of 31 vehicles
The Lagos State Mobile Court has ordered forfeiture of 31vehicles to the state government for driving against traffic (one-way) thereby contravening the State Traffic Law.
The Court gave the judgment on Wednesday after the 31 defendants, who drove the vehicles, pleaded guilty to the ‘one-way’ traffic offence charged against them.
According to the court: “The arraigned 31 drivers were charged for driving in the direction prohibited by Law (One-way) punishable under Part (III) item 27 of the ‘Lagos State Transport Sector Reformed Law of 2018 and have been penalized accordingly”.
However, 43 other drivers arraigned for plying the BRT corridors and causing road obstructions were ordered to pay fines to the government in accordance with the Law and severity of their offense.
Chairman of the Lagos State Environment and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit (Taskforce), Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, confirmed out of 160 arraigned traffic offenders, including those apprehended for driving against traffic (One-way) only 74 had so far appeared before the court.
Read Also: Man Faces Prosecution For Assaulting Lastma Official
While urging the remaining 86 who are yet to appear before the court to do so immediately, Egbeyemi acted in response to series of complaints from members of the public particularly motorists that activities of one-way drivers were causing serious traffic gridlock on daily basis since the #EndSARS protest across the State.
According to him: “It is painful that with a high level of enlightenment campaigns and several warnings by the government, motorists including private car owners are still driving against traffic knowing fully well that the penalty for such offense is outright forfeiture of the said vehicle to the government”.
