By Monsur Olowoopejo

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State distributed 500 auto-vehicle inspector devices to the Nigeria Police Force, NPF; the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC; Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA and the Vehicle Inspection Units, VIUs, as part of the measure to stem traffic gridlock in the state.

Fashola who was represented by the Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, distributed the hand-held device at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa, Ikeja during the official launching of the Auto-Inspector Vehicle Document Verification device by Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, MVAA.

Fashola said that traffic gridlock on Lagos roads are compounded when traffic officers are in the process of stopping motorists to check their vehicle particulars and determine their documentation status which hitherto was done manually and not automated.

He said among others that: “This devise will give a great boost to our efforts in transforming the transport sector in the state, although its benefit transcends traffic management and enforcement of vehicle documentation laws and regulation.”

It will reduce and ultimately eliminates corrupt practices by law enforcement agents as the status of any screened vehicle is simultaneously captured both by the hand-held device and operators manning the servers at the AUTOREG control rooms.

“Improved interface between motorists and law enforcement agencies as the usual complaint of indiscriminate stoppage and harassment of motorists by law officers will ease. And it will serve as a huge boost to our crime prevention and control efforts due to instant data-capturing capabilities”.

Fashola added: “The introduction of the auto inspector service will enable our traffic control and law enforcement officers to simply punch the registration number of a vehicle into a hand-held electronic device and instantly determine the vehicle and vehicle owner’s documentation status”.

The Governor explained that vehicles that will be screened by the auto-inspector device are those vehicles registered in Lagos State which have their updated documentation data, including vehicle and driver’s license, hackney permit and road worthiness/MOT-captured on the AUTOREG platform which is operated by MVAA technical unit in conjunction with their partners.

“At the traffic management level, our roads will witness smoother traffic flows as the traffic snarls resulting from ‘checking’ exercise by law enforcement agencies will drastically reduce. Only those motorists, who may have contravened one document law or the other, will be subjected to stoppage and physical checks and apprehension, where necessary,” he stated.