Lagos Arrests Six Fake LASTMA Officials

Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Special Offences Unit has arrested six people allegedly impersonating Lagos State Traffic Management Authority and the task force officials as well as extorting money from unsuspecting motorists and residents.

The task force also arrested 13 underage children who allegedly had been snatching bags and handsets in the Oshodi area of the state.

Task force Chairman, CSP Bayo Sulaimon, said the fake LASTMA officials arrested, charged and issued forged receipts to unsuspecting motorists and other traffic offenders.

Sulaimon said the fake LASTMA and task force officials were nabbed in Lagos Mainland after they had swindled hundreds of unsuspecting motorists and residents in the state.

He said, "We got the information about the people who have been parading themselves as the taskforce of a local government. They have even gone as far as printing fake stickers and copies of the traffic law which they use to threaten unsuspecting motorists.

"When they arrest you, they will claim they are task force officials. On getting the information, I moved my men there and we caught them red-handed."

Meanwhile, Sulaiman also lamented the growing rate of street kids that had been left to cater for themselves under the bridges and other places in Lagos, said  young boys who were arrested in Oko-mola were aged between 12 and 15 years.

He said,  "It is unfortunate that people give birth to children without taking care of them. Some of these boys are products of broken homes. Some were abandoned simply because their fathers got married to a second wife."

He added that the arrested children would be taken to the correctional home for rehabilitation, saying the government was not in the habit of sending children to prison.