Lagos mobile courts convicts 62,477 traffic offenders

Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), on Wednesday said that the state’s mobile court convicted 62,477 traffic offenders in the past one year.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Onigbanjo made this disclosure while giving account of his stewardship from April 2020 to April 2021.

The attorney-general gave the account at the 2021 Ministerial Press Briefing of Lagos State.

He said that during the period under review, 62,477 persons faced the law for various traffic offences such as use of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lanes, street trading, driving against traffic, willful obstruction as well as violation of COVID-19 regulations.

“The mobile courts sit on Saturdays at different locations across the state and deal largely with violators of COVID-19 regulations,” he said.

According to Onigbanjo, the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) issued 954 legal advice during the period.

“The DPP is currently prosecuting 1,860 cases at the high courts and magistrate courts, including 10 suspencts who have been charged over attacks on officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency.

“The Community Service Unit of the DPP, during the period under review (April 2020 – April 2021), also supervised 557 community service sentences.

“The community service sentences were for street trading, loitering, fighting and environmental offences,” he said.

The attorney-general added that the state Directorate of Civil Litigation obtained 18 rulings and 34 judgments in favour of the Lagos State Government.

He said that the directorate had helped the state government to reduce contingent liabilities with suits worth N95 billion being dismissed by the courts.

Onigbanjo said the Federal High Court had on Feb. 3 in the case of Olukoya Ogungbeje versus Lagos State Government and seven Others, affirmed the position of the state government in restricting the use of motorcycles and tricycles as means of transportation on specific routes within  six LGAs  and nine local council development areas in the state.