Lagos driver flees after setting LASTMA officer on fire

A commercial driver is on the run after causing bodily injuries to an officer of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority in the Mile 2 area of the state on Tuesday.

The LASTMA spokesperson, Adebayo Taofiq, confirmed the incident in a statement made available to PUNCH Metro on Tuesday.

According to Taofiq, LASTMA operatives had accosted the driver for violating traffic regulations but he resisted arrest.

He noted that in an attempt to evade arrest, the driver sprayed his vehicle and some of the officers who had taken over the vehicle with petrol, set the bus on fire and fled the scene.
Taofiq narrated, “The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority has been made aware of a distressing video showing the driver of a Volkswagen T4 commercial bus, licence plate LSD 355 CK, setting both his vehicle and LASTMA officers ablaze in a brazen attempt to evade arrest.

“The vehicle was intercepted for violating traffic regulations in the Cele inward Mile 2 area.

“In the course of the arrest, the driver and his conductor erupted into a frenzy, resorting to pouring petrol on LASTMA personnel and engaging in hostile confrontations and physical attacks against officers present.”
The LASTMA spokesperson added that the injured officer who sustained severe burns was taken to a nearby hospital for medical attention.
He stressed that the driver and his assistant who perpetrated the assault would be brought to book.

“The injured LASTMA officer, who sustained severe burns, was immediately transported to a nearby hospital for urgent medical treatment.

“The agency strongly urges all commercial and other drivers to comply fully with traffic regulations and respect the authority of LASTMA personnel. LASTMA will not condone any form of violence or intimidation and will take firm and decisive action against those responsible.

He reiterated the agency’s commitment “to preserving order and ensuring the safety of Lagos roads, as stipulated in the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law of 2018.”

PUNCH Metro reported a similar incident on October 10 when some soldiers attached to the Ojo Cantonment Barracks led by a yet-to-be-identified colleague, who was accosted for driving against the traffic around Volks Bus Stop, along the Ojo Iyana Iba Road area of Lagos State stabbed a policeman, Saka Ganiyu, to death.

The soldier, who was not wearing his uniform, while driving an unregistered T4 Volkswagen commercial bus against the traffic, was stopped by policemen on enforcement duty at Volks Bus Stop.
Angered by the action of the policemen, the soldier had reportedly contacted some of his colleagues, who were said to have trooped out of the Ojo Cantonment Barracks and attacked the policemen.

A document chronicling the circumstances surrounding the soldiers’ attack on the policemen indicated that Ganiyu sustained varying degrees of injury during the attack and was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital for urgent treatment where he reportedly died.