Traffic codes: We now park our vehicles with tears —Lagos Motorists

Who is right and who is wrong? BOLA BADMUS, CHUKS OKPARAOCHA and TUNDE ALAO speak to the controversial traffic codes in Lagos.

USING traffic facilities is becoming difficult and frustrating for motorists in Lagos. Private vehicle owners in particular seem to be having a hard time regarding where to park their vehicles as Lagos revenue officials, ostensibly out to enforce the new parking law, are on the prowl.

These days, it is better to go to banks, shopping malls, restaurants and other related places through public transport than in one’s vehicle, as the revenue officials swoop on unsuspecting motorists at the flimsiest of excuses.

A resident told Saturday Tribune of how officials are going about the new law on vehicle parking in Lagos State. She noted that vehicles parked by the side or on the curbs of some major roads now have their number plates removed and their owners arraigned before a mobile court, either present or in absentia, and then fined.

“During a visit of the chief security officer of my establishment to the mobile court last week, he witnessed many motorists who were sentenced to either two weeks of community service at the Gbagada General Hospital or payment of a fine of N15,000 or both. Both processes of appearance in court and payment of the fine at the Alausa branch of a bank are tedious.

“Please let’s avoid the embarrassment this could cause by employing alternative means to go to banks, shopping malls or restaurants. It may be a costly mistake to take personal vehicles, since it is obvious that from the way these officials are carrying out their assignment, you cannot go free. You cannot escape fine. That is certain,” said the woman who craved anonymity.

A ‘victim’ who identified herself simply as Sisi Agba, said: “I had a very terrible experience yesterday morning (Monday last week) on my way to work and I want people to learn from it. At about 10.00 a.m., I parked in front of a bank to use the ATM. I had barely come out of the car when I saw somebody doing a video recording of cars parked in front of the bank. The next thing I knew, people who came out of a fleet of Lagos State branded vehicles started removing the number plates of the cars, including mine.

“I tried stopping them from removing my number plates by explaining to them that I was only there to use the ATM. A policeman among them said to me, ‘madam, it is beyond us. The chief judge is in that bus’. Then I approached the chauffeur-driven bus in the fleet only to be told by the police escort to go and talk to the team on the road. They removed my number plates and placed a paper in front of my car asking me to come to Alausa.

“Before going to Alausa, I went into the bank and I asked the staff members how they could watch their customers get maltreated like that. ‘They don’t even know how to go about this Lagos revenue drive’. That is what we have been witnessing here for the past two weeks’, a staff member said in response.”

On getting to Alausa, the victim continued, he and some other ‘offenders’ were asked to wait as the chief judge who would sit at the mobile court was still on the road monitoring the would-be offenders. At their office were scores of other people who allegedly violated the parking laws.

According to another ‘offender,’ after a case file has been opened, “they would advise you to plead guilty before the magistrate otherwise the case would be adjourned until further notice. Can you imagine that?! Eventually, we were found guilty and asked to pay a fine of N15,000. We had an option of one week community service. Some of us were asked to pay N20,000 or N25,000 fine, as the case maybe, with an option of one month imprisonment.”

Another lady who spoke with Saturday Tribune said she was inside a fast food restaurant in Ogba when her car’s number plate was removed. Both the prosecutor and the defender’s lawyers, she said, were provided by the government. “Can you beat that? All they were saying was that Lagos State needs to generate more revenue.”

People are asking questions as to where motorists are expected to park their vehicles when visiting banks, eateries and shops, believing that most of the available spaces in front of the banks and other buildings have been officially secured from the relevant government agencies.

However, it was gathered from discussions with some of the officials that the quest for revenue generation informed the policy and that private vehicles, taxis and company cars are easy targets. “Hardly can you see us pursuing commercial vehicles, especially yellow buses (danfo), reason being that they are difficult to deal with, plus a sizeable number of them belong to the police, LASTMA or VIO officials, or members of Lagos task force. Besides, pursuing the commercial drivers is a waste of time and resources, putting into consideration the weekly target that should be met”, said a member of the task force.

Countless residents are still trying to come to terms with the diverse methods adopted by the government to increase the state’s internally generated revenue.

Judging by the style of operation of the officials of the state’s task force and the swiftness with which they carry out the assignment, motorists are of the opinion that the idea of removing vehicles’ number plates has been deliberately adopted by the government to shoot up the state’s revenue. But they are also nursing the fear that the relatively new move could be abused by those expected to get the job done.

Narrating to Saturday Tribune how she lost her number plate recently, Mrs Adenike Elliott, a teacher at a private secondary school, said “a few days ago,” she parked her vehicle on the curb at the Maryland area of Lagos in order to pick a friend whom she had spotted in a crowd at the bus stop. According to her, it took a while for her friend to walk to where she had parked.

“Before I knew what was happening, a van belonging to the task force parked in front of my vehicle. Two men jumped out of the van and went for my number plates. Naturally, I tried to ward them off but I was warned that anything I did would just make matters worse for me at the mobile court. With the aid of my friend who eventually arrived, we opted for an out-of-court settlement,” said Mrs Elliott, who preferred to keep mum over the amount with which she “settled” the officers.

The experience of another resident, identified simply as Mrs Mosun, was reported in a section of the media.

Mosun said she had parked her car in front of a popular commercial bank on the Island with the approval of the bank’s security personnel. She said although the car in question was not parked within the bank’s parking lot, she and a few other customers had been given the nod by the security man on duty to park at the spillover very close to the bank’s frontage, especially since the spillover was duly paid for by the bank with receipts collected.

She said the presence of the bank’s security officials close by gave her confidence and therefore she could make a quick dash into the bank to make some transactions. According to her, there was no way she could even afford to waste time in the bank which was on the Island area of Lagos. By the way, any attempt to spend more time than necessary would mean she would pay the price by being trapped in traffic for hours when eventually heading back home, which was on the Mainland.

After spending about 30 minutes in the hall, Mosun stated that she headed back to her car, which she was convinced was securely parked within the bank’s premises, only to be told that some task force officials from the Ministry of Transportation had, moments earlier, removed her car’s number plates alongside those of other vehicles and vanished. They were all accused of illegal parking. “I was shocked at the spectacle that confronted me,” the retired civil servant said.

Bewildered at the development, she promptly sought explanations from one of the bank’s security personnel at the gate only to be faced with an even more confused bank official who could not offer a reason for the action of the unknown task force officials from Alausa who carried out the act. “We paid for that space and the transaction was receipted” was the response Mosun got from the bank official.

The matter was later resolved on getting to Alausa with a warning to her not to park on that spot again but this was after she had been asked to produce her tax receipt and pay the sum of N30,000 as fine. Others were not that lucky.

For instance, Mrs Odusanya, another affected resident, was even in her vehicle when her number plates were removed. She had been accosted by the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) at a location close to Iyana Ipaja Roundabout, en route Egbeda, and an argument had ensued. Unknown to her, while the argument was going on, one of the officers had started removing her car’s number plates at the rear.

“Although I was able to collect my number plates back, that was not without some damage to my vehicle. I wanted to take it up with these officers, because what they had just done was outright thuggery and irresponsibility, but I was begged to let go,” she recounted.

Mobile court speaks

The Lagos mobile court said last week that there was no truth to an allegation that its officials were doing “deals” with arrested motorists by accepting bribes. It challenged motorists being forced to part with any form of gratifications to do a video recording of such and make it available to the agency for investigation and punishment of erring officials.

The coordinator of the mobile court, Mr Femi Alabi, in a reaction to the allegation, said: “No, there is nothing like that. Our officers don’t do that. Whoever among our officers does that (take bribe from motorists), motorists should get that on video. What we are doing is a form of enlightenment. What they do is put stickers on vehicles that are parked in wrong places, including walkways, and such motorists are made to appear before the mobile court to defend themselves. They wouldn’t take cash. In fact, we would be glad if we can get a report on any of our officers who had struck a deal with any motorist. We shall be glad to investigative such case and punish whoever is found guilty,” Alabi said.

The coordinator contended that the mobile court officials would not arrest anybody for no just cause, saying officials would only arrest those who parked indiscriminately on walkways, among others, thereby obstructing the traffic.

Alabi, who noted that some motorists are in the habit of packing in front of ATMs not minding that they are causing some obstruction to flow of traffic, lamented that this set of people finds it a herculean task to trek some distance.

“If you park your vehicle on the walkway, you will be arrested. It means you don’t want the walkways to be available for people to use. We want to change people’s attitude generally. Our people don’t want to trek just a few distance. We want to change people’s attitude towards road traffic signs, including traffic lights and zebra crossings. It is not a lawless society. We are building a mega-city. It is a serious matter. It is not a play. It is about changing the attitude of our people,” Alabi said.