Governor Fashola Halts Operations Of Fraudulent Lagos State Agents Till After Election

A temporary reprieve has come the way of the victims of the fraudulent agents of the Vehicle Inspection Unit of the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation.

The governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola has ordered that all VIO agents desist from arresting car owners over allegations of fake licenses and vehicle particulars.

www.societynowng.com had exclusively reported the conducts of these state agents on Lagos roads.

The report- confirmed by our undercover reporter- had detailed how the V.I.O officers apprehend motorists at will and impose fines way beyond stipulations on whims.

The core area of their extortion is the offence listed as fake Driver’s License.

And they determine who an offender is by merely looking at the Driver’s License!

Though according to their charge sheet the fine for the offence attracts is pegged at five thousand naira- the V.I.O officers usually append ten thousand naira to fifteen thousand naira fine. And then seize the License.

Investigations had revealed that this is usually done to eight out of every ten ‘offenders’ apprehended.

Insiders had revealed that the need to earn commission on the money realized in their units for the state government via the Lagos state ministry of transportation the motivating factor for the fraudulent conducts of the V.I.O officers.

The growing agitation over this development and unpopularity smears on the state government in this election reportedly forced Governor Fashola to call for a stop of the arrest of motorists over ‘fake Driver’s license.

Insiders however revealed that the halt is not permanent- but till after the election is over.

This directive has raised another question about the honesty of the state government in the matter hand- whether the agents are acting alone or with tacit backing of those in power.

From the look of things, the state government is only adopting a populist approach because the ruling party wants to win election said source.

Another source maintained ‘the best thing is to wait for the government final posture on the matter before taking a stand’

Interestingly investigation revealed that the state and it’s V.I.O agents may be acting outside the purview of the constitution if the assertion of the Federal Road Safety Corps is anything to go by.

Zonal spokes person Okoro in a chat with www.societynowng.com insists ‘the V.I.O do not have any business determining whether a Driver’s License is fake or not. They do not have that authority and no right to confiscate the license of any driver. The only thing they can do is to bring the suspected fake license to the FRSC for verification’
Okoro insists that anything short of that is illegal. The FRSC zonal spoke person was however silent on plan by the federal agency to correct the anomaly.