The Lagos State Government has banned all local governments from
setting up illegal environmental and traffic taskforce that extort money from
members of the public.
According to a report by PM NEWS, several local governments across the state have established parallel
taskforce and traffic officials who arrest motorists and extort between N20,000
and N30,000 from them for allegedly breaking traffic law.
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ademorin
Kure at a ministerial news conference on Thursday said government has outlawed
all forms of taskforce or traffic officials being set up by councils, desctibing
them as illegal.
“On illegal traffic officers, we have held meeting with our local
government chairmen and the council chairmen have addressed the press at
different times and saying they don’t know these people.
“A few weeks ago, we issued another letter to our local governments
telling them that wherever we find this happening, we are going to hold the
council chairmen responsible. We have equally informed the Lagos State Taskforce
that they should make sure that wherever they find these illegal traffic
officers, they should arrest them and prosecute them,” he said.
On illegal collection of levies by council officials, the
commissioner said government had issued several directives to the councils that
local governments found wanting would be sanctioned.
“Whenever we receive complaints from any quarters, we promptly act
and we direct our councils to make sure that whatever they are collecting is
within the approved rate by the Lagos State House of Assembly. The fact that the
law is there does not mean that we will not find people who will want to breach
the law, particularly the landowners who sometimes go to government schemes to
sell land to the people.
“We have constantly held meetings with them through their monarchs
for them to desist from such act and that if they are caught, they will be
criminally prosecuted,” he stated.
On boundary matters, the commissioner said Lagos and Ogun States had
been collaborating on the retracing exercise of Section “C” which starts from
Omu Creek and ends at Ode-Omi Border town towards the Atlantic Ocean.
He added that all fieldwork in respect of this section had been
completed while necessary documents concerning the claims of the two states had
been forwarded to the National Boundary Commission (NBC).
“However, Lagos and Ogun states are awaiting the decision of the
National Boundary Commission on where the imaginary line of demarcation exist
and preparations are in top gear to erect a signpost in the completed Sections
“A” and “B,” he explained.
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