BEVERLY HILLS, February 26, (THEWILL) – The General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Olajide Oduyoye, has said that the motorist who knocked a police officer over a bridge in the city would face charges of attempted murder.
A viral video that made the rounds on Thursday showed a sports utility vehicle tipping a police officer off a bridge into a canal while trying to escape arrest.
Reacting to the incident while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Friday, Oduyoye said the driver, Sunday Okodo, has been charged to court with two counts of attempted murder and traffic violation.
The LASTMA GM said Inspector David Zapaina has been discharged from the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“He is alive and he has been discharged from the hospital but it is more like he needs to seek more local intervention to reset his bones,” the LASMA boss noted.
Regarding what LASMA operations will be in the nearest future, Oduyoye said the agency would employ body cameras as part of measures to ensure offenders were apprehended with solid evidence.
He said Governor Babjide Sanwo-Olu was working towards helping the agency acquire the necessary technologies to checkmate traffic offences within the metropolis.
“This year, we are definitely hoping to start in the next few weeks what you will say are non-approachable offence dealings. That means we are going to be having body cameras on officers to capture incidents because things happen so fast and you can’t really say let me get my camera. But if you have your body camera on that is recording, then, you can capture all sorts of different things that you can use against offenders,” Oduyoye stated.
He also disclosed that some persons who violate rules often removed traffic signs to deliberately disobey road laws.
“Those who wilfully disobey traffic signs go in the middle of the night to remove those signs. When they are caught, they will say that there were no signs. They go and remove the signs to prove they aren’t aware of the signs. This happens all the time,” he said.
Oduyoye cautioned road users in Lagos to obey traffic laws and accept the consequences of their actions if they are apprehended for flouting the rules of the road.
