Lagos sacks 174 LASTMA officials
No fewer than 174 officers of the state Traffic Management Authority
(LASTMA), have been sacked by the Lagos State Government for their
alleged involvement in corruption, overzealousness and other crimes.
Daily Sun gathered that the sack was part of moves to weed out bad eggs
and reposition the authority for better service delivery and traffic
management. Sources said 34 LASTMA officers were sacked two months ago
over cases of corruption, fraud, overzealousness, among others.
It was also gathered that two months ago, LASTMA recommended 200
officers for dismissal and their names were forwarded to the Civil
Service Commission (CSC) to determine their fate after the affected
officers had faced the Personnel Management Board (PMB), a disciplinary
organ of the state government. Daily Sun investigation showed that in
the last one week, 140 LASTMA officers had received their letters of
sack from the CSC after they were found wanting in the prosecution of
their jobs.
Statistics of the retrenchment exercise revealed that most of the
LASTMA personnel sacked were junior officers who had been enmeshed in
fraudulent acts, indiscipline, dereliction of duty, extortion of money
from motorists, among others.
The Head of Service, Adesegun Ogunlewe, had warned that any LASTMA
officer found extorting money from motorists in the guise of the new
road traffic law would be dismissed outright as prescribed by the law.
He said government would not condone acts of corruption among its
officers as transparency and accountability were the keys of governance
and that public officers must not paint government bad to the public.
General Manager, LASTMA, Babatunde Edu, had at different fora reiterated
that government would sack officers found to be corrupt in the
discharge of their duties, urging the public to always report cases of
corruption, overzealousness, indiscipline, among LASTMA officers to the
authority for appropriate disciplinary measures.
He said once a report about a LASTMA officer was made to the
authority, such officer would be investigated and if found guilty, the
law would take its course.