“AT times, most of them leave their posts to other places simply because they want to extort money from us. At times some of them would be posted to Oshodi, for instance, but you end up seeing them at Iyana-Ipaja. That is not even our business. But our pain is that they arrest us anyhow and anywhere.

“In fact, the fear of LASTMA is the beginning of trauma for all bus drivers and conductors in Lagos State.”

Another bus conductor, Mr. Razaki Ajumobi, condemned the alleged killing of the conductor by officials of the agency. He said: “My concern about the incident is that government should not allow those concerned to go scot-free.

“They should be charged to a competent court of law. All they do is just to extort money from us as if we are their moving ATM machines. We also hear some of them are into daily contribution. Some contribute as much as N10,000 daily from the money they extort from us.

“They do not consider the fact that we are apprentices. Whether you park right or wrong, they do not care to know. All they do is to collect N5,000 and above from anyone arrested.”

Also airing his view on the death of the bus conductor,  Mr. Gbenga Lawrence, owner of some buses at one of the garages in Iyana-Ipaja said: “What more can you expect from hoodlums? It is obvious that  majority of LASTMA officials  are hoodlums. We want government to review their activities so that responsible people who can really do the job and understand the duties would be recruited into the agency.

Impounding of vehicles

This is because most of them are discharging their duties wrongly. One of the duties of LASTMA is to control traffic-jam but now if a vehicle develops fault on the road, LASTMA would impound the vehicle without first helping the stranded driver out of the road. LASTMA is cancerous, the agency should be disbanded or the officials made to undergo good training.”

For Kehinde Ajala, a graduate who said he opted for a conductor’s job after several years of fruitless search, “it is a pity one of our colleagues is gone. I believe the state government had a good intention for establishing the agency. But like every organization which has bad egg, LASTMA is no exception. My contention here is the presence of armed mobile policemen who usually accompanied LASTMA officials.

“Sometime last year, one of the policemen shot a fellow policeman at Ijesha bus stop simply because he tried to intervene when the vehicle he was in was impounded by LASTMA officials.

“Why take to violence when other measures like taking down the plate number of erring vehicles could be a better option? I would also want to suggest that the arrest and subsequent court hearing into the murder of the conductor be made public as that would go a long way to show that the state government is against their excesses.

“For example, we read that only one LASTMA official was handed over to the police as against three earlier claimed. Though I appreciate the fact that they have helped in controlling traffic, I condemn the act of the officials taking laws into their hands and sending people to their early graves.”