Show-of-Shame: LASTMA Officials engage Bus driver in street fight

There was pandemonium yesterday, August 18, 2015 at the Anthony bus stop near Oshodi, Lagos, as two officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) threw caution to the wind to engage commercial bus driver in fisticuffs following disagreement over the arrest of the driver for plying the BRT lane.

Motorists, commuters and passersby were astonished seeing the LASTMA men pulled off their uniforms in the middle of the fight. Some of the passersby who took pictures were harassed and their handsets destroyed by the LASTMA men.
Eyewitness said one of the LASTMA officials smashed the windscreen of the TATA bus owned by the Ogo Oluwa Motors with his telecom’s device. The LASTMA’s action, he said, followed his earlier call for a backup team when the driver of the bus refused to alight and hand over the keys.
The LASTMA’s official’s action infuriated passengers, the conductors and the driver who were seen pleading. The driver and the conductor alighted and exchange blows with the LASTMA men. Two of the LASTMA officials pulled off their yellow shirt during the fight.
Many watched as they were seen trying to stab one another with the broken windscreen glasses.
Bashir Sanni, a passenger blamed the LASTMA official for smashing the windscreen. “It does not matter what kind of offence that has been committed; that was not a wise way of stopping a bus driver. Is that the orientation given to them? How can he break a windscreen? You know how much it costs. If every defaulting bus windscreen was smashed anytime they misbehave, how many good buses would remain? Sanni asked.
Another passenger who declined giving his name called on LASTMA authority to sack the officials for indiscipline.
“With the kind of attitude they displayed and for dragging the name of the agency in the mud, they ought to be sacked,” he said.
When contacted, LASTMA Public Relations Officer (PRO) Bola Ajao, promised to investigate the matter.
“I doubt if our men were involved in the fracas; you know some people using fake LASTMA uniforms are everywhere now to perpetrate evils,” she said.
Source: Nation