A bus conductor on Monday allegedly stabbed a LASTMA officer during a routine enforcement operation at Ile-Epo Market on the Lagos-Abeokuta Road.
The General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Mr. Olalekan Bakare-Oki, disclosed this in a statement.
Bakare-Oki said the conductor of a Volkswagen commercial bus stabbed the officer when a LASTMA patrol team apprehended the bus for obstructing traffic at the market corridor towards Abule-Egba.
He condemned the act, stressing that the officer was performing his lawful duty.
“The officer was carrying out his statutory responsibility of ensuring unobstructed vehicular movement and maintaining order on Lagos roadways.
“The driver of the commercial vehicle vehemently resisted lawful enforcement procedures. In a shocking escalation, the vehicle’s conductor armed himself with a screwdriver and violently attacked the LASTMA officer, inflicting a stab wound.
“The injured officer was immediately evacuated to a nearby medical facility, where he received urgent medical attention and is responding positively to treatment,” he said.
Bakare-Oki said the matter was promptly reported at the Abattoir Police Division, and the suspect was apprehended and taken into police custody for further investigation and possible prosecution.
He expressed concern over the rising hostility towards traffic management personnel while discharging their lawful duties.
The Lagos State Government, he said, would not tolerate any form of assault, intimidation, harassment, or attack on officers entrusted with maintaining sanity and order on public roads.
“Anyone found attacking LASTMA personnel in the course of their lawful duties will face the full weight of the law.
“Our officers are deployed across the state to facilitate seamless movement of people, goods and services, as well as to ensure strict compliance with extant traffic regulations.
“Any act of violence against them constitutes an affront to public order and the rule of law and will not go unpunished,” he said.
Bakare-Oki urged motorists, commercial transport operators, and other road users to comply with all traffic regulations as stipulated in the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law, 2018.
He emphasised that cooperation with traffic management authorities remains indispensable to achieving a safer, more efficient, and more orderly transport ecosystem.
He also appealed to transport unions to continually sensitise their members on the importance of respecting law enforcement and traffic management officers.
