LASG Impounds 3,000 Motorcycles Between January-May

The Lagos State Task-Force on Environment and Special Offences (Enforcement) said it impounded over 3,000 commercial motorcycles otherwise known as okada for various traffic offences between January and May in the state.

The spokesman for the Task-Force Adebayo Aribidesi, said on Monday in Lagos that the motorcycles were impounded at various restricted corridors and inner routes.

According to him, anybody riding a motorcycle must put on a helmet; the motorcyclist must not carry a pregnant woman or person(s) below 12 years.

The spokesman stressed that all the seized motorcycles will be crushed and totally destroyed by the state government.

Aribidesi said that the state government had embarked on park sensitisation and enlightenment programmes for motorcyclists on the traffic law.

“The Task-Force has impounded over 3,000 commercial motorcycles within the state in all 475 restricted routes including the highways and bridges.

“The position of the Lagos State Traffic Law 2012, restricts commercial motorcycles from highways and bridges in Lagos State.

“Majority of them are violating the law at will, thinking the law is no more in existence,’’ he said.

“The law is not punitive but corrective for better society,” he added.

According to him, the task-force operations will also discourage the law enforcement officials from riding their motorcycles at the restricted routes across the state.

“The task-force does not discriminate; the Police, Army and Nigerian Navy have been briefed and discouraged from riding at these 475 corridors.

“There is nobody above the law, once you are found guilty of violating the traffic law, your motorcycle will be impounded,” he said.

Speaking with the Motorcycle Operators Association of Lagos State (MOALS), Casso Branch in Alagbado, however, appealed to the state government to intervene and help its members to recover the motorcycles allegedly seized from the branch.

Mr Sunday Bernard, the Chairman of the branch, made the plea in an interview withwan

Bernard alleged that men of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit besieged the branch park at Casso and forcefully took the motorcycles from their owners.

The chairman said efforts to convince the officials that the park was in an inner street and not part of the 475 restricted routes failed.

He said that most of the motorcycles were new ones bought on a hired purchase by the owners who were either laid off by their former employers or job seekers.

He urged the state government to intervene and let the riders recover their motorcycles.