Customs officials attack LASTMA, destroy vehicles

Customs officials attack LASTMA, destroy vehicles

For daring to challenge one of its officials for driving in a direction prohibited by the law (one-way), some personnel of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, last weekend unleashed terror on officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA.

The crisis, which occurred at Mile 2, saw no fewer than four vehicles belonging to the Lagos State traffic officials vandalized, while at least three officials were wounded in the process.

An on-line statement by the Public Relations Officer, PRO of LASTMA, Mrs. Bola Ajao, alleged that the Customs officials also destroyed valuables in the offices, in a bid to forcefully recover the impounded vehicle belonging to one of its personnel.

Ajao stated that LASTMA officials had impounded a wine-coloured Sports Utility Vehicle, SUV, with the registration number, Lagos: EKY 521 CZ, at the Coconut area of Mile 2 in Lagos. She stated that the SUV was seized around 9.15am in the area.

She explained further that an hour after the arrest, some custom officials in the convoy of three patrol vehicles fully armed with automatic rifles led by an officer who introduced himself as a deputy comptroller, stormed the LASTMA yard and inflicted injuries on its officials on sight.

The image maker alleged that an official of the agency, one Musiliu Edu, and a police corporal, Saliu Isiaka, were severely battered for recording the attack while their phones and their camera seized at gunpoint.

Another official of the agency, Wensu Idowu, was also purportedly hit in the mouth with a gun butt and had to be rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

She added that the Zonal Head, LASTMA, Mr. Victor Adeyanju, recounted that the uniformed officers stormed the office and demanded for the unconditional release of their colleague’s vehicle, but were informed that there was a standard procedure for the release of vehicles impounded for traffic offences by traffic officers.

The refusal of Adeyanju to release the seized vehicle, she said, angered the customs officers, causing them to intensify the beating and dragging of officers on the floor and the threat not to leave the premises without the apprehended vehicle.

She added that the ‘doggedness’ of the LASTMA officials led to sporadic shooting by customs officials while also holding people inside the offices hostage.

She added: “It took the concerted efforts of the police from FESTAC police station led by the Divisional Crime Officer, DCO, Ifeanyi and his team to restore normalcy.

“The custom officers, however, escaped on the way to the station, but one of their official patrol vehicles was apprehended and taken to the Festac Police State while the apprehended SUV has been deposited at the LASTMA Headquarters.

“The officers who hurriedly left in order to prevent justice left behind evidence such as bullet shells and a name tag belonging to one of the officers named Audu. A. A.”

The General Manager of LASTMA, Mr. Babatunde Edu, has, however, condemned the uncharitable attitude of the officers for brutalising the LASTMA officials, and preventing them from carrying out their lawful duties by invading the zone and attacking them.

Edu also appealed to uniform personnel across all military and paramilitary formations to see LASTMA officials as partners who wree out to ensure sanity on the road.