An official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, Mr. Ola Oyeshina, was fatally injured by truck drivers and hoodlums in the course of sanitising traffic in the Iganmu-Sifax axis of Apapa, Lagos on Friday, November 29, 2019.
A large stone allegedly thrown at the officer hit him in the head, causing a severe injury and trauma, which culminated in his death in the early hours of November 30.
The gruesome death of Oyeshina again brought to the spotlight the heartless assaults the traffic officials are subjected to in the course of duty.
The traffic management agency was set up by the Lagos State Government in July 2000 to ensure smooth flow of traffic, curb road accidents, reduce travel time and enhance the quality of life.
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Traffic management has always been a dilemma in the nation’s commercial nerve centre and, even with the LASTMA officials controlling traffic at almost every road junction and highway, traffic is sometimes still chaotic.
Therefore, the total mess that Lagos would slide into in the absence of LASTMA officials is better imagined than experienced. But instead of earning respect and accolades, the traffic officials are ridiculed, maimed or killed by fellow citizens they serve.
Although some officials sometimes stray off the agency’s operational standard, this does not justify the inhuman assaults on them. There is an official procedure to complain about the misconduct of a LASTMA official.
Attacks such as that in which Oyeshina lost his life is becoming frequent and must be totally curbed.
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, paid a condolence visit to the home of the slain Oyeshina last week, warning that the government would no longer tolerate attacks on law enforcement officials.
We recall that just about a year ago, his predecessor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, similarly warned during the condolence visit to the home of another LASTMA official, Rotimi Adeyemo, who was brutally murdered on duty at Iyana-Ipaja Roundabout, Lagos, at about 6pm on November 28, 2018.
Adeyemo had contravened the driver of a Toyota Highlander SUV, with registration number LSR 277 BJ, later identified as Police Inspector, Olukunle Olonade, attached to FSARS Ikeja while driving against traffic.
Adeyemo and the police officer, who was in mufti exchanged words and during the altercation, Olonade reached for his pistol and shot the LASTMA official to death.
A mob, thinking the shooter was an armed hoodlum, descended on him and inflicted injuries, resulting in his death while being rushed to the hospital.
Former governor Ambode had made a disheartening revelation that in just 2018 alone, 18 LASTMA officers died on duty while 24 others were on admission in several hospitals due to injuries suffered from attacks.
In what is almost becoming a ritual, harm could come through a mob attack, as was the fate of Bakare Olatunji, LASTMA commander, who was beaten to death in Apapa area in December 2016, or accident as happened to Mrs. Folashade Arogundade, 33, who was crushed to death by a truck in May 2019, as she and other personnel were evacuating articulated vehicles, causing gridlock in the Apapa area.
And just before the recent Oyeshina murder, a video had gone viral in the social media, showing soldiers beating up a LASTMA official after one of them was stopped in the Onipanu area for plying the BRT lane in disobedience to traffic laws.
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The state government should devise measures to protect the traffic officials beyond the normal condemnation of the assaults and prosecution of the perpetrators.
A category of attackers of the traffic officials is policemen and soldiers. There should be more engagements with the leaderships of the security agencies to stop their personnel from the despicable assaults.
Another category is commercial vehicle drivers. All manner of persons, including drug addicts, sits behind the wheels of commercial vehicles in Lagos. We urge the government to strengthen the process of licensing commercial drivers to guarantee that only the mentally fit and law-abiding drivers ply the routes.
The government must also invest in technology to eliminate the traffic officials, having to apprehend erring motorists physically in a manner that would put them in harm’s way.
There must also be constant public awareness campaigns on the important role LASTMA is fulfilling in the Lagos transport sector, assisting economic growth and ensuring the safety and security of the citizens.
The people must be educated on the evil of assaulting traffic officials on duty. The killing, maiming and molestation of LASTMA officials must stop.