As many live in fear of armed robbers and kidnappers disguising as drivers on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sunday Tribune’s VINCENT KURAUN x-rays the activities of a local government task force operating on the Kara Bridge, Isheri-Berger area as they lure drivers whom they thereafter extort for picking passengers on the highway.
As passengers including office-goers, travellers, businessmen and women waited on vehicles at the foot of the Kara Bridge, Isheri on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway to convey them to their various destinations on the morning of a busy Wednesday in December 2022, a private car owner, Adeyemi (not real name), seized the opportunity to convey some of them.
Before his arrival, two of the three vehicles already stationed at the spot were headed for Interchange, Ogere and Ibadan. An unidentified man believed to be a member of the Ogun State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) beckoned on other passengers heading towards Sagamu and Ore to enter the third vehicle.
The passengers who wouldn’t opt for any of the three vehicles flagged down Adeyemi’s car which was outbound Berger and headed for Ibadan. About five passengers rushed into the vehicle as it came to a halt. One of the passengers who got in the front seat beside the driver (Adeyemi) reached out for the car’s keys, removed it from the ignition and seized it. He was no ordinary passenger but, as it turned out, a member of a task force belonging to a nearby local government area.
His colleague, Kingsley (not real name), who had also disguised as a passenger and had taken a back seat in the vehicle with others, ordered the rest of them to alight. Their actions were not alien to Adeyemi as he begged the passengers to alight as instructed. Based on their instructions, Adeyemi swapped seats with Kingsley.
Kingsley (now in the driver’s seat) and his colleague took Adeyemi back to Berger and they disappeared inwards Isheri-Berger Road.
The unidentified NURTW official who watched the drama unfold allayed the fears of the passengers who had thought Kingsley and his colleague were either armed robbers or kidnappers. He told them that they are members of a local government task force operating in the area.
Many of the passengers at the spot wondered when the task force started operating in the area, especially on a federal highway and to which local government area they report.
Most of the members of the yet-to-be-identified task force declined to comment on their roles when approached by Sunday Tribune. One of them who spoke with Sunday Tribune on the condition of anonymity pointed out that their role was to prevent incidence of robbery and kidnapping at the spot, adding that their presence was known to the police authorities in both Lagos and Ogun states.
“We are not just here doing illegal work on Kara Bridge,” he told Sunday Tribune. “We were sent here to stop people from being robbed and kidnapped on the bridge.”
“Weeks ago, a woman was robbed by someone who pretended to be going towards her direction. She was picked on the bridge here and along the way, she was robbed of N250,000. Most of the victims are usually women. So, we are here to stop the activities of robbers and kidnappers from picking passengers on this bridge.”
Another encounter with the task force
Tiamiyu is another person who has had an encounter with members of the task force. He told Sunday Tribune he left Lagos on Friday, December 16, 2022, to attend to an assignment in Ibadan, Oyo State, but was arrested by members of the task force at Kara bridge. His offence was stopping on the bridge to pick up passengers.
Narrating his experience to Sunday Tribune, he said: “I was going to Ibadan that fateful morning. There was traffic as I approached Kara Bridge, so I decided to help out a few people on the road since I was all alone in the car. After I stopped the car, the task force officials hopped into my car, took the back seat and one of them from behind removed my car key.
“They drove me forward and turned after the bridge (between Kara Bridge and Isheri junction) and drove me back towards Lagos. I took time to explain to them that I only stopped to help the waiting passengers but my pleas fell on deaf ears. When we got to Ojodu bus stop, they advised me to negotiate with them so that I will not be taken to the office where I will be given a ticket for an offence.
“We negotiated and they agreed to collect N10,000 from me. Since I wasn’t with cash, I transferred the money to the bank account of one of them named Kafo I. This transaction took place on the 16th of December 2022 at 9:32 a.m. using USSD-NIP.
“Thereafter, they drove me back to the foot of Kara Bridge, handed over the car key to me and one of them asked me to carry passengers if I wanted to. He thereafter called a few passengers for me.”
Tiamiyu, further lamented that the officials “were not in uniform and they are there only to lure motorists to fall victims. I really don’t know what local council agents are doing on the federal highway with no proper form of identification.”
Another victim, who identified himself as Seun, was driving towards the bridge when he was flagged down. The officials also hopped into his car and removed his car key before he brought the vehicle to a stop. The officials numbering five also took him to Ojodu Abiodun office in Ifo Local Government Area, Ogun State.
“It was on the 30th of December 2022 around 10:00 a.m. when the incident happened. I was coming from Lagos when I noticed some activities on the bridge. A few buses were there loading when I was stopped by some people whom I assumed were passengers. Before I could even stop the car, they all rushed in without asking me where I was going or to ascertain why I was stopping.
“Suddenly, one of the operatives who entered from the back removed my key from the ignition and they started forcing me to come down from the car. I was terrified because I did not know who they were and why five of them would enter my car at the same time. They drove me back into Lagos around Ojodu bus stop.
“They asked for a bribe from me but I refused. They later drove me about few metres away from the bus stop and took me to a compound where I saw Ojodu Abiodun in Ifo Local Government Area Office and threatened to issue me a ticket of N55.000 if I failed to comply. My car key was handed over to another person the moment we got inside the compound and they also threatened to deflate my tyres.
“At that point, I made some calls but my boss’s contact didn’t go through. I had no other option than to give them the only money I had on me. They refused to collect the N15,000 I initially offered then, saying the least they would collect was N25,000. I offered to do a transfer to them but they asked me to use a Point of Sale (POS) terminal outside the compound. I ended up paying N23,500 in cash to them before I was taken back to Kara Bridge where my car key was handed over to me.
“As soon as they got down from the car, two of the operatives walked forward, used the same method, flagged down another private car owner and they got him arrested within a very short time. Their unwholesome practice has given rise to exploitation and waste of people’s time and one begins to wonder what local government council task force will be doing on a federal road disguising as passengers to extort money from motorists,” Seun disclosed.
Again, if that is the case, what is the task force of Ojodu Abiodun in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State doing on Kara Bridge disguising as passengers to arrest motorists and extort money from them?
“We understand that the money collected from motorists end up in their private pockets or individual bank accounts or does the government of Ogun State now devise another means of remitting revenue into private hands without getting receipted payment?
“We leave this to the relevant authorities to do the needful by clamping down on what I can only describe as illegal activities of Ojodu Abiodun local government task force on Kara Bridge with so much impunity because traffic management is not a responsibility of the third tier of government or what reason will they give for arresting motorists on the bridge?”
One would have expected that local government officials would be more civil and transparent in dealing with road users other than this practice of traumatising and harassing people with no form of identification and disguising as passengers on the bridge, flagging down cars only to get them arrested in these days when kidnapping and banditry are very rampant in every part of the country.
Like the above drivers who fell victim on those very days mentioned, a lot of other motorists usually fall victims on the Kara Bridge by those that can be described as touts masquerading as local government agents under the guise of enforcing whatever law on the federal highway to arrest and extort money from motorists.
It was also discovered that most times those guys claiming to be agents of local governments prefer to coerce their victims on their way to their offices by asking them to pay some amounts which normally go into private pockets.
But do the local government task force officials or agents have the constitutional rights to arrest motorists on a federal highway, especially in area under the council’s jurisdiction?
Federal Highway Act
The presence of the local government officials on the federal highways runs contrary to the provisions of the Federal Highway Act of 1971. According to the act, the power of arrest in certain cases on the highway is given to the police. Section 9 of the act says: “A police officer may arrest without warrant the driver of a motor vehicle on a federal highway who within his view commits an offence under sections 5,6,7 and 8 of this Act.”
The Act also stated that “the control of traffic etc. on federal highways is to be carried out only by authorised officers” and nowhere was local government agents or task force empowered by the act to operate on federal highways.
Section 1 (sub-section 2) of the Federal Highways (Control of Traffic Etc.) Act of 1982 defines an authorised traffic official on federal highway as any police officer, any member of the Traffic Warden Service established by the Police Act, any officer in the Federal Ministry of Works acting on any special or general delegation of powers made to him in that behalf by the minister; or any member of the public service of the federation discharging functions conferred upon him pursuant to the provisions of any enactment.
The Act further provided that “any person, not being an authorised officer, who enters upon any federal highway for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of any enactment relating to road traffic on any such highway shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N200 or imprisonment for six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
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