Funsho Williams and Adekogbe Olabode were on Wednesday arrested in Lagos for
impersonating officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and extorting Thirty-Five Thousand Naira (N35, 000. 00) from an innocent motorist
under a false pretense.
Narrating his ordeals under the fake traffic managers at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital where he had gone for
treatment as a result of injury sustained in the hands of the suspects, 62-year-old retiree of the Federal Aviation Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN) Felix Adesanya recounted that he was discharged from LASUTH in
September and given a medical
appointment for Wednesday 12th of November, 2014. To meet up with his appointment, he left his four Olaonisebe close, Akute residence in his ash colored Toyota Camry with registration number KRD 653 BX.
According to the Abeokuta born indigene of Ogun State, he was flagged down by two men in mufti wearing a reflective
jacket on their cloth at Akilo area of Ogba.
He halted with the thought that the two were in need of assistance to move farther. To his surprised the duo accused
him of disobeying traffic personnel and all explanation that he did not commit any
traffic offence fell on deaf ears as they were bent in arresting him.
The duo insisted that he has committed a traffic offence and forcefully entered the vehicle introduced themselves as LASTMA officials and flashed an ID card with the inscription of LAGOS TRAFFIC TASKFORCE.
They later demanded for his
wallet, ransacked it and took Thirty Thousand Naira with a threat to take him to their office if he did not cooperate and summed up the money to Sixty Thousand Naira.
In order to meet up with his appointment, Adesanya went on his knees begging his captives for mercy and was advised to
take them to the nearest Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or face the risk of
forfeiting his vehicle and paying One Hundred and Twenty Thousand N120, 00 to government.
Left between the deep-blue sea and the devil, the retiree followed them obediently.
At the ATM, they demanded to know his account balance in which he refuted and withdrew five Thousand naira only. With
Thirty-Five Thousand Five Thousand Naira, the fake traffic task forces were not yet
done as they demanded that Adesanya dropped them back at the Guinness bus stop.
As a result of the rigors he went through, the 62-year-old retiree was shaking and fagged out. In a bid to run away, the suspects waved down commercial
motorcycles, and was about to mount same when the old man held on to one of them and started calling for help.
Pandemonium broke out, and people ran after them. One of the suspects jumped on the tail of a moving commercial bus, and it
was while this was going on that a LASTMA patrol vehicle approached the scene and stopped the bus from moving
away.
Giving an account of the incident, a LASTMA official; Jonathan Arewa recalled
that at about 08:15hrs on Wednesday along Oba Akran inward Ikeja. There was a
chase after a young man in a white shirt by an angry mob that was later caught and handed over to the LASTMA team on
routine patrol. The crowd accused him of robbing a man of #35,000 in collaboration
with another man who was at large as at that time. It took the concerted efforts of the Police and the LASTMA team to stop
the mob from lynching them.
The suspects were taken to Area 'F' police station at Ikeja for further investigation. Confirming
the incident the Investigation Police Officer Saliu Sanni disclosed that further investigation will be conducted, and suspects charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded.
Reacting to the incident in Lagos, The LASTMA boss Engr. Babatunde Edu condemned the act and disclosed that the
impostors were never a staff of his agency and warned impostors to desist from the
illegal act or face the wrath of the law as there would be no hiding place for them to perpetrate their evil deed. He explained that the agency would continue to embark on an aggressive public enlightenment
campaign to inform and educate Lagosians on how to identify a genuine LASTMA official and not to fall prey to impostors
who are out to enrich themselves under the pretence of working for the State.
Edu revealed that LASTMA officials were to be in uniform at all time with visible name tag.
He added that no officer must
cover its name tag with beret, pen or other items, and motorist has the right of asking for the official's identity as anything short of this is illegal and must be reported to the authority.
This hint according to him will expose the faceless traffic agents who are parading themselves as officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) thereby extorting innocent members of the
public and bringing disrepute on the name and image of LASTMA and to enable motorists to be conversant with LASTMA code of conduct, promotion of understanding between the Agency and the public, and above all discourages impostors from taking advantages of
innocent motorists.
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