Hoodlums attack task force officials, vandalise vehicles

The operatives of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Agency popularly called Taskforce are set to prosecute twelve suspects who attacked members of an enforcement team of the agency yesterday, damaging four government owned vehicles in the process.

Speaking on the attack, which took place at Alapere area of the state, the Chairman of the Agency, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, said that the enforcement team of the agency and men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) had responded to a distress call that some protesters were about to burn down Alapere Police Station over the clampdown on commercial motorcycle operators plying illegal routes as directed by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu.

He explained that on getting to the scene around Alapere Police Station, the protesters came out en-mass to attack the agency’s enforcement team with stones, iron-rod, broken bottles and cutlasses, stressing that it was in the course of restoring peace and order in the area that the officers were injured and vehicles damaged.

He however confirmed that 38 suspects were initially arrested during the fracas, but that 26 innocent persons were later released after thorough screening, adding that Odumosu had since directed that the remaining 12 suspects be immediately charged to court.

“Let me state categorically that the battle line has been drawn with these illegal motorcyclists and to warn various associations regulating their operations to immediately call them to comply with the law as the government would no longer tolerate the slightest attack on any enforcement personnel forthwith,” he stated.

Egbeyemi also revealed that the agency had impounded 493 commercial motorcycles and riders arrested after they were caught contravening the law by plying restricted routes around Alapere, Ketu and Mile-2 area of the State by the operatives of the agency with the support of men of the RRS on Monday.

While informing that the agency’s driver, Ojo Tobiloba, who was severely wounded during the attack in Ketu was presently receiving treatment at the hospital, the Chairman reiterated the determination of the agency to ensure that all road users in the state abide by the stipulated traffic rules and regulation.