Unknown to her, the bridge to airport road had been closed following a tanker explosion that burnt part of the bridge on January 7, 2021. National Emergency Management Authority had stated that integrity tests would be carried out on the bridge before the route could be reopened. Unfortunately, the authorities are still carrying out their so-called integrity test, two months after, on the bridge, which leads to the busiest airport in Nigeria, while citizens bemoan their fate.
It is the same experience for Innocent Emeka, whose car was seized for driving past a BRT lane in a bid to enter an office in the Sabo area of Lagos. His words: “They caught me for breaching the BRT corridor, for which there is no sign post. I didn’t struggle with them. I obeyed them, believing they would show understanding but they took the car away. I tried to explain to them that it wasn’t intentional but they refused. So, I followed them to their office. The next thing, they ticketed me.
“Why should suspects be treated with so much disdain? We have courts in Ikorodu that can hear these cases and we have pro bono lawyers that can provide a good defence for the suspects,” she said and urged the decentralisation of the mobile courts and for the proper treatment of suspects. Adebayo Akinlade, who was a former chairman of the NBA Ikorodu wondered why a mobile court is located in one place? “Is Justice served by gathering suspects from all over Lagos and taking them to a central location to be prosecuted? What impact does this have in the spread of COVID-19? ” He asked? Akinlade stated that a lawyer who tried to represent a suspect at the mobile court was told to go and get a written approval from the Attorney General to be able to represent the defendant, and that...
But the coordinator of the Lagos state special offences mobile court, Mrs Arinola Ogbara denied the allegations, insisting that the mobile court sits at different locations and that lawyers are allowed to represent their clients freely in all the courts. According to her, while the mobile courts’ head office is at Bolade Oshodi, it does sit anywhere in Lagos.
“And in a situation where you ply a one-way by driving against oncoming traffic, the penalty for the offence is outright forfeiture of the vehicle to the government. So, once you commit an offence and you have a lawyer who asks you to plead not-guilty, it is your wish. We are not concerned about that because it is beyond our own responsibility. Our own is to make an arrest, charge to court and then the court will take it upon themselves either to discharge and acquit you or to give you a fine.
Lagos is a city of exploiters, there’s no story about that, people have countless incident of high handed ness of these Lastma thieves
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