A man is to face prosecution for assaulting an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authourity (LASTMA).
Emmanuel Ben was said to have injured Ismaila Lukman, a LASTMA official on Sunday at Jakande Junction in Lekki.
Lukman said he was controlling traffic manually owing to the destruction of the traffic light when Ben approached him, asking that traffic be stopped for him to cross despite a pedestrian bridge nearby.
The LASTMA official said he should use the bridge.
Lukman said Ben stepped into the carriageway, disrupting traffic.
On being warned to leave, Ben reportedly said LASTMA officials would be chased off the road like the police.
Lukman said Ben hit him in the head with a weapon, giving him a serious cut from which blood gushed out.
Two passersby joined Ben in the assault, Lukman claimed.
Ben was arrested by military patrol and regular policemen in the area and detained at the Ilasan police station.
LASTMA General Manager, Olajide Oduyoye said the Lagos State Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo has directed that Ben be made to face the full weight of the law.
This, he said, was to serve as deterrent to others with similar motives.
Oduyoye in a statement by LASTMA’s Assistant Director of Public Affairs, Olumide Filade, the agency will not shy away or be cowed into submission from carrying out its lawful duties, “no matter the intimidation and promised that anyone caught assaulting LASTMA officers henceforth would be made to face the music under the Law.”
He said that for there to be free flow of traffic in the metropolis, Lagosians must have a change of mindset to obey the traffic law.

By Tajudeen Adebanjo