Lagos driver blames LASTMA officials after being stabbed with broken bottle

A commercial bus driver, Jamiu Alao has blamed officials of the Lagos State Management Traffic Authority (LASTMA) after being stabbed by suspected hoodlums.

Alao recalled that he was attacked alongside his conductor when his vehicle broke down along the road in the Constain area of Lagos State, on Thursday, December 22, 2022.

Trouble began when the LASTMA officials attempted to tow their vehicle, a development Alao and his conductor resisted.

It was gathered that while the bus driver and his conductor were resisting the attempt to have their vehicle towed, the hoodlums arrived at the scene and stabbed them with a broken bottle.

“My conductor and I loaded our bus at Apongbon and when we got to Costain at the Nigerian Brewery, the bus developed a fault under the bridge. I discovered the gear was faulty.

“Some boys helped us to push the vehicle to a side of the road to avoid causing traffic. I paid the boys that helped us. We saw a mechanic and he was already fixing the vehicle when some LASTMA officials came with their vehicle and a towing van.

“They started harassing us and I told them that the vehicle was not on the road and I was properly parked, but they insisted that they wanted to seize my vehicle; I told them they couldn’t.

“After saying this, some boys who usually followed them, came and started pushing me. The next thing, one of them took a bottle from the LASTMA vehicle and hit it on my head. Before I could even see who broke the bottle on my head, another one hit me with the bottle again and they used the bottle to stab me in the forehead.

“The LASTMA officials watched the whole thing; they were already seated in my bus, wanting to take it. They didn’t say or do anything. It was when they saw the fracas was much that one of them beckoned others to get down from the bus so they could leave. They took their vehicle and ran off. Those hoodlums injured me and my conductor badly,” the bus driver said as he recounted how the incident happened.

Reacting to the incident, the President of the Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria (JDWAN), Akintade Abiodun said it’s an open secret that LASTMA officials usually worked in connivance with hoodlums.