Motorists have called on the Lagos State government to curb the excesses of law enforcement agencies, just as they claimed that the state government may not achieve the desired result on the new traffic law because of the excesses of the law enforcement agencies.Community News gathered from some victims of the new traffic law that men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority( LASTMA) and the police were already capitalising on the new law to extort money from those who violated the new traffic law.It was gathered that those responsible for the enforcement of the law, instead of ensuring that violators were arrested and brought to book, have only jerked up the amount they collected as bribes from victims and allowed them to go without being booked.Some victims of the new law who lamented to Community News via text messages, stated that they were arrested by law enforcement agencies, but they were only allowed to go after they paid some money.One Mr Ademola Mike of Shomolu area, lamented that he was arrested by some LASTMA officials attached to Pen Cinema Division of Agege last Friday for making telephone call while driving and he had to give them monry before they allowed him to go' I was driving on Friday and as I got to Pen cinema area of Agege, a call came and I was trying to receive it when three LASTMA men accosted me and said that I had violated the new traffic. I argued with them for a while and one of them just brought out a copy of the new traffic law to convince me that I had wronged the law. I begged them and at the end, they said I had to give them money.'I gave them N2000 but to my surprise, they insisted that I must cough out N10,000 if I didn't want to be prosecuted. To convince me, they read out the aspect I had violated and the penalty attached to it. I later gave them N4,000 before I was allowed to go.'Another victim. Paul Adebayo, lamented that he was arrested for eating while driving. ' I was going home in the evening on Friday and I was trying to link Dopemu from Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway when the police surrounded me for eating while driving. Initially, I argued with them, but when they kept on delaying me, l had to give them money to allow me regain my freedom.'Most commercial motorists who spoke to Community News on the new traffic law, maintained that the situation has created opportunity for the law enforcement agencies in the state to make easy money.Some of them lamented that police and LASTMA now used the law to intimidate and harass the people in order to get money from them.' I doubt it if the new law would work. Law enforcement people would book and prosecute few violators who refuse to grease their palms.
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