Man dies from shock after bribe-seeking LASTMA officers seized his vehicle

A man identified as Modibo Usman, has lost his life after suffering from the shock he experienced when some Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officers in the Surulere area of Lagos State seized his vehicle.

Modibo, who was a Bureau De Change operator, was heading to the Foremost Radiology Consultant Hospital on Ogunlana Drive in Surulere, with the help of his son Mustapha when their vehicle was intercepted.

Narrating their ordeal in the hands of the LASTMA officers, Mustapha said his late father who had an appointment with his doctor at the Living Heart Hospital in the Lekki area of Lagos, appealed to the LASTMA officials who stopped them for disobeying light that he was heading for a medical emergency, but he wasn’t taken seriously.

According to Mustapha, the LASTMA officials demanded N50,000 bribe before considering to release them to continue their journey.

“My father and I kept pleading with them but the officers refused. My father was even crying and telling them that he had a medical emergency but they said that is what people usually say.

“The two officers ordered us to go to the back seat and they sat at the front and started driving us to the Foremost Radiology Consultant Hospital. My father continued crying that he was in an emergency; they then demanded N50,000 to release us.

“But when we got to the hospital, we quickly rushed to get the test result to show them so we could continue our journey to see his doctor at Lekki but the officers and the vehicle were nowhere to be found when we returned.

“Instantly, my dad suffered a shock and collapsed. I quickly alerted the nurses where we picked my sister’s result and they rushed to attend to him and confirmed him dead.

“When I rushed to the LASTMA office to inform the officers that what they did had caused my father’s death, they started saying I could take the vehicle but I left it there and called our relative, Mrs Yosi Yaduma, to inform her about what happened,” Mustapha narrated as he attributed his father’s death to the nonchalance attitude of the officers.

Explaining the situation surrounding Usman’s death, LASTMA spokesperson, Olumide Filade said the deceased wasn’t in any form of emergency as claimed, adding that he died as a result of a medical crisis.