Lagos traffic officials accused of issuing fake receipts

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A driver, Tajudeen Omoniyi and his boss, Olusegun Dada, have accused some youths working with the Alimosho Local Government Area, Lagos State, of extorting money from him (Dada) by allegedly issuing fake receipts for a traffic offence they claimed was not committed.

Omoniyi told PUNCH Metro that he had reversed from the premises of the MTN office in the Egbeda area to the main road for a vehicle in front of him to move out when he was arrested.

He said the officials turned down his explanation and insisted that he had violated the “highway code”. He said he requested that they identify themselves, but they declined and towed the car to the council secretariat.

He said, “On Friday, October 16, my boss and I went to the MTN office along Egbeda-Akowonjo Road. We parked on the MTN premises; I tried to tell them that I was waiting on the main road for the car in front of me to come out of the premises. But they did not listen.

“I begged them to allow me to call my boss inside the MTN office. They refused, beat me up and towed the car to their secretariat in Akowonjo. We had to pay N10,000 before the car was released and they gave us receipts without number.”

Omoniyi’s boss, who is a lawyer, said the officials did not state the offence his driver committed, but he eventually agreed to pay the fine to avoid trouble.

He said, “Those youths were hoodlums parading themselves as officials. They deflated the two front tyres of my car and damaged its bumper. About 20 of them suspected to be under the influence of alcohol took me to a corner and said my driver had breached the highway code.

“They asked me to pay N25,000, but I said I could not pay for an offence that was not written. When they threatened to beat me up, I offered them N5,000, but they rejected it. Eventually, one of them collected N10,000 from me and came back with a receipt that is not numbered which I challenged. They also collected N500 for the gate pass and I spent another N1,000 to pump my tyres inside their premises. I am suspecting the receipts are fake.”

The lawyer said his efforts to report the perceived extortion to the Executive Secretary, Mr. Jelili Sulyman, were frustrated by some workers of the council.

He said, “I went to the local government secretariat three times to report what happened to the executive secretary but all my efforts were rebuffed. I learnt that the officials were brought in by the secretary as his henchmen and I can identify them.”

However, the Coordinator of Traffic Operations, Mr. Babatunde Saka, who spoke on behalf of the secretary, said Omoniyi and his boss’ claims were not true adding that the car was seized for parking on the road.

He said, “Our duty is to sanitise the traffic and we have ethics. None of our operatives goes out without putting on their uniforms and identity cards. We don’t tamper with seized vehicles. The lawyer’s vehicle was towed on the road, not on the MTN premises and we have a photograph to that effect.

“The receipts are original and a pass needs to be tendered to show that the owner of the vehicle paid the fine.”

On the allegation that hoodlums were being used as officials, Sulyman said, “That is not true. The present political dispensation does not give room for hoodlums to operate anywhere.”

Source: Punch