The Oyo state Road Transport Management Authority (OYRTMA) has affirmed its commitment to impose stiffer sanctions on traffic violators in Oyo state.
The agency’s Executive Chairman, Mogaji Akin Fagbemi PhD, announced this in a statement to reporters at the Authority’s administrative offices in Ibadan.
While lamenting the recent spike in road accidents in the state, particularly in the capital city of Ibadan, Mogaji Akin Fagbemi expressed deep concern and directed all Area and Zonal Commanders of the Authority across the Thirty-Three LGAs to impound any vehicle whose owner committed any serious road offence.
Defaulters, according to the executive chairman, will not only be prosecuted but may also face forfeiture of their vehicles or machines, depending on the severity of the offence committed.
In his words, Dr Fagbemi posited that “the Authority is not oblivious of the geometric increase in one-way-driving among several road users in Ibadan metropolis which has resulted into numerous avoidable road crashes. This is not only a condemnable act, it is a deliberate attempt to murder, maim or destroy the person and properties of other users of the road.”
“It is a characteristic trait of an uncivilized society in which Ibadan is not. As the agency statutorily saddled with the responsibility of maintaining sanity on roads across the State, we shall not fold our harms and watch as some individuals destroy innocent and law-abiding citizens. We shall continue to impound and prosecute anyone found driving against traffic in the State no matter how highly placed”, he said.
Speaking further, the OYRTMA Boss revealed that while the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Authority Law 2009 is presently being reviewed to meet trending global standards, the management of the Authority has resolved to ensure that offenders found guilty of driving against one way traffic face the full wrath of the law through a doubled fine totalling a minimum of Fifty-Thousand Naira Only (N50,000.00) or risk complete forfeiture of the vehicle.
“While the Authority would continue in its myriads of advocacy and enlightenment programs against one-way driving and its attendant consequences, defaulters of the extant road traffic laws of the State would be made to face the full wrath of the law” Dr Fagbemi concluded.
