Lagos Mobile Courts Convict 62,477 Traffic Offenders

By Segun James

The Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), has stated that the state Mobile Courts arrested, arraigned and convicted 62,477 traffic offenders in the state in one year.

Onigbanjo, while briefing journalists on the stewardship of his ministry, noted that during the period under review, 62,477 persons had faced the law over various traffic offences such as the use of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane, street trading, driving against traffic, willful obstruction as well as violation of the COVID-19 regulations.

According to him, “The Mobile Courts sit on Saturdays at different locations across the state and deals with cases of violators of COVID-19 regulations.”

Onigbanjo said the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had also issued 954 legal advices during the time frame.

“The DPP is currently prosecuting 1,860 cases at the High Courts and Magistrate Courts, including 10 offenders who have been so far charged over attacks on officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA).

“The Community Service Unit of the DPP, during the reviewed period (April 2020 – April 2021), also supervised 557 community service sentences.

“The community service sentences were for street trading, loitering, fighting and environmental offences,” he said.

The attorney-general also noted that the Directorate of Civil Litigation had obtained 18 rulings and 34 judgments in favour of the Lagos State Government.

He said the directorate had helped the state government to reduce contingent liabilities with suits worth N95 billion being dismissed by the
courts.

Citing an example of such cases, Onigbanjo said the Federal High Court on February 3, 2021, in a case of Olukoya Ogungbeje vs Lagos State Government and seven others, affirmed the position of the state government restricting the use of motorcycles and tricycles as a means of transportation on specific routes within the six local government areas and nine local development areas in the state.