Was in a friend's car heading for the beach one Sunday afternoon at the popular CMS bus-stop when a LASTMA official stopped us for "not using our sit belt"we showed him and then he said he wanted to search that was when my friend, a lawyer formally introduced himself and occupation and thus saved us from harrasment.
Well, In public forum on the Law, The Vanguard reported that the General Manager of LASTMA, Engr. Babatunde Edu, gave the order in his addres.
According to Edu, the move was a
spontaneous measure to respond to the complaints against aggressive law
enforcement by junior officers. He urged the public to report any junior
officer who victimises or harasses them, saying they have been stripped
of the power to arrest.
Speaking on how to distinguish between a junior officer and a senior officer, he said “You
can easily identify the junior officer with black epaulet on their
shoulders; they cannot arrest, only the senior ones with red epaulets on
their uniforms can arrest.
We have stopped the juniors from
arresting motorists and okada riders except during a joint operation.
That is the extent we have gone in checkmating aggressive enforcement of
the law”
The state government has
listened to our calls to curb their reported excesses and has ordered
junior LASTMA officers to stop arresting erring motor-cycle riders also.
So when next you get stopped by a man in cream shirt and wine trouser, kindly look at his epaulet on their
shoulders if it is black tell him to park well. But the thought on my mind is "hope they wont ( the junior officers) start putting on their senior officers red epaulets and hope their won't be mass promotion in the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA). ? well one thing I observed is that most the junior officers are mostly scantily dressed. *wink*
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