The Lagos State Mobile Court has remanded six transporters for allegedly beating personnel from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), popularly known as KAI, during an enforcement exercise along Airport Road, Ikeja.
The six suspects sent to prison by the court were among the seven suspects apprehended by law enforcement officers for inflicting life-threatening injuries on the Lagos State Government officials and setting their vehicle ablaze while restoring sanity along the airport road in the state.
One of the defendants, having entered a plea of not guilty, was consequently admitted to bail, while the remaining six were remanded in custody.
The seven suspects were arraigned yesterday before the Chief Magistrate of the Lagos State Mobile Court on four-count charges, after which the matter was adjourned to February 19, 2026, for further hearing.
The nocturnal enforcement exercise, personally led by the General Manager of LASTMA, Olalekan Bakare-Oki, was executed in strategic collaboration with other government agencies.
The operation was precipitated by an avalanche of formal complaints submitted by the Nigerian Airport Authority (NPA), lamenting the persistent and unlawful encroachment on its facilities by criminal syndicates and recalcitrant commercial bus operators operating in flagrant defiance of extant regulations.
According to the Management of the Nigerian Airport Authority, the activities of these notorious miscreants and illegal operators had degenerated into a grave public nuisance and an unsightly blight on the airport corridor, with recurring reports of harassment, intimidation, and the dispossession of unsuspecting members of the public of their personal effects.
During the lawful execution of the enforcement operation, five officers of the joint task force were viciously attacked with dangerous weapons, while one of the Authority’s tow trucks was deliberately set ablaze by the rampaging miscreants in a desperate attempt to sabotage the exercise and brazenly challenge the authority of the State.
Despite the severe provocation and imminent threat to life and public assets, officers of the joint enforcement team exhibited exceptional professionalism, commendable restraint, and conspicuous courage in the face of the coordinated onslaught.
In the course of the operation, a total of 56 vehicles were impounded for various traffic and environmental infractions, comprising 44 commercial buses, five private vehicles, and seven trucks.
Bakare-Oki reiterated the unwavering resolve of the State to safeguard critical public infrastructure, guarantee the safety of all road users, and uphold law and order across the metropolis.
He warned unequivocally that the Government would neither capitulate to intimidation nor tolerate violence from criminal elements, stressing that every act of lawlessness would be met decisively with the full weight of the law.
LASTMA Boss further assures members of the public that enforcement operations along critical and strategic corridors of Lagos will remain continuous, intensified, and firmly anchored within the confines of the law, in close collaboration with sister agencies, to eradicate criminality, restore public order, and safeguard lives and property.
