LASTMA sanctions 235 vehicles, arrests 10 for traffic infractions

The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) has sanctioned 235 vehicles for traffic infractions and arrested 10 miscreants during an enforcement campaign across critical traffic corridors within the metropolis.

The General Manager of LASTMA, Mr Olalekan Bakare-Oki, confirmed this in a statement made available to our reporter on Thursday in Lagos.

Bakare-Oki noted that the decisive and far-reaching intervention was to reassert order, discipline, and structural coherence within the urban mobility architecture of Lagos State.

Bakare-Oki who coordinated the operation said there was full deployment of personnel across high-density zones, notably Oyingbo, Iddo, Eja-Lonibu, Adeniji Adele, Sabo, Jibowu (Inter-State Terminal), and Oshodi.

He noted that locales had long contended with chronic congestion, indiscriminate parking, flagrant environmental violations, and general traffic anarchy.

“During the initial enforcement phase, no fewer than 235 vehicles, comprising 38 private automobiles, 156 painted Volkswagen commercial buses (Danfo), 19 minibuses (Korope)/tricycles, five haulage trucks, and 17 inter-state passenger buses were impounded for various breaches of the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law of 2018.

“Offences ranged from unlawful encroachment upon pedestrian pathways, obstruction of vehicular flow, establishment of illegal terminals to reckless disregard for established traffic regulations,” he said.

He said five articulated trucks were intercepted atop the Adeniji Adele Bridge, while illicitly offloading livestock—including rams, cows, and abattoir waste—thus constituting a grave environmental defilement.

“They compromised both public safety, the structural integrity of the bridge and the drivers, in manifest contempt for sanitation laws, are now subject to imminent judicial proceedings,” he said.

He said the enforcement was executed at the directive of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Mr Sola Giwa, who persistently championed strategic, coordinated response to the entrenched culture of indiscipline that continued to undermine the state’s transportation landscape.

The LASTMA boss said the operation would systematically cover all five administrative divisions of Lagos State—Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos Island, and Epe.

He added that LASTMA personnel and partner agencies would deploy a comprehensive mix of regulatory, logistical, and technological assets to reclaim public roadways from abuse and restore the urban commons to lawful users.

“LASTMA is now operating under a strict zero-tolerance mandate against traffic infractions. All impounded vehicles will be promptly arraigned before the Lagos State Mobile Court for prosecution.

The era of impunity on our roads is over. This operation is not an attack on any demographic or commercial interest; it is an overdue rectification of systemic dysfunction.

“We call upon every road user to embrace this moment as an invitation to collective civic renewal,” he said.