By Abdulwahab Abdulah
Lagos State government officially reacted to the judgement of a Federal High Court barring the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, from imposing fine on erring traffic offenders, insisting that the court’s judgement could not stop LASTMA from performing its duty.

The state Solicitor-General, Mr. Lawal Pedro (SAN), in an interview argued that the state was dissatisfied with the court order and had since filed an appeal while praying for the stay of execution of the judgement of the trial court.

Pedro, who also is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, described the court’s decision as “an abeyance”, which could not be implemented until the determination of their case at the Court of Appeal.

He, therefore, said that nothing prevented officials of LASTMA from carrying out their statutory duty since “traffic offence itself is a strict liability offence and the law itself provides fines.

“Even if you go to court, you will still be made to pay the exact amount imposed on you by LASTMA. Once you commit a traffic offence, there is liability to pay, it is not really that LASTMA has constituted itself to court, what LASTMA does is to issue you a ticket and you pay penalty into the state’s account. The law is fixed by the state assembly.”

Pedro said though the government had released Mr. Jonathan Odutola’s vehicle, the state will not leave any stone unturned in order to reverse the high court judgement.