Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, (SAN) has charged officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), to focus on their primary responsibility of ensuring free flow of traffic across the metropolis rather than apprehending erring motorists.
Fashola gave the charged on Tuesday at the induction of the new Special Traffic Mayor and meeting with LASTMA Personnel held at the LTV 8 Blue Roof, Agidingbi, Ikeja.
The governor said rather than allowing the enforcement of the law to generate traffic gridlock on the highways, they should instead allow the traffic offenders to go so as not to defeat the purpose for which the agency was established.
“The primary responsibility of LASTMA is to keep the state traffic moving. And this is the reason why the agency exists. Arresting traffic offenders is secondary. If making an arrest will increase the traffic, let the offenders go. I say this not because I don’t want law breakers to be apprehended and brought to justice, but law breakers cannot undermine our main objective.
“The longer people stay more in traffic, the more money is wasted and fuel is burnt and when people stay more in traffic, this leads to increase in the price of goods in the state. But with a moving traffic, price of goods will be stable,” he stated.
Fashola urged the traffic management personnel to always draw government’s attention to bad portions of the roads in their areas of operations.
“Part of the LASMA duties is to report to us regularly about the area they are posted that have bad roads. This government has moved away from only constructing roads to also do maintenance through the Public Works Corporation. You are our primary source of data and we have spent a lot of time and resources training you,” the governor added.
Source: The Nation
