How Fake LASTMA Official Who Makes N40k Daily Was Arrested
One David Oluchukwu (27), a self acclaimed official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), was on Thursday arrested in the Lekki area of the state.
According to a statement released by Taofiq Adebayo, LASTMA’s director, Public Affairs department on behalf the agency’s General Manager, Bolaji Oreagba, the fake official was caught by a patrol team monitoring and controlling traffic in that area while he was collecting money from unsuspecting motorists.
“Preliminary investigations conducted by the agency revealed that the arrested suspect belonged to a criminal gang and they have been extorting huge sums of money from innocent motorists apprehended for various traffic offences ranging from seat-belt, obstructions, illegal over-taking and one-way in different locations across the state.
“The suspect was apprehended after our patrol team sighted him fully kitted in a LASTMA uniform on a black jean collecting money from different commercial bus drivers who were illegally dropping and picking passengers under the Lekki Bridge.
“It is disheartening for some unscrupulous elements impersonating as LASTMA officials and extorting money from innocent motorists thereby denting the good image of the agency before the public” the statement read in part.
Oluchukwu, a native of Ukpu in Anambra state was quoted as saying that he made at least forty thousand naira daily from ‘traffic offenders’.
“Any motorist I caught driving against traffic (one-way) paid a minimum of N50,000, while other traffic violators were charged with different fines,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
