Court says LASTMA lacks power to impose fines, tow vehicles

An Ikeja high court has ruled that it is illegal for the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to impose fines and tow vehicles of motorists suspected to have committed traffic offences.

Olalekan Oresanya, the presiding judge, said this on Friday while giving judgment in a suit instituted by one Lawal Aliyu whose vehicle was impounded in November 2021 by LASTMA officers.

Aliyu was fined N20,000 for an alleged traffic offence and N10,000 for towing charges.

The plaintiff demanded the sum of N5m as damages against the respondents jointly and severally for breach of his fundamental rights.

The judge held that there is no part of the Lagos State Traffic Management Law that permits the agency to deprive citizens of their right to freedom of movement.

He held that the applicant ought to have been arraigned before a competent court before he can be penalised for any traffic offence.

“Public authorities and bodies cannot act in a manner that is inconsistent and incompatible with the fundamental rights of citizens as guaranteed by the constitution, which is the ground norm,” the judge held.

“Even in the jurisdiction where parliamentary laws/statutes are supreme, such as the United Kingdom, public bodies must not act in a manner that is incompatible with the conventional rights of citizens as embodied in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which has now been incorporated into the Human Rights Act 1998, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right being an equivalent of the ECHR and which has now being codified into the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, 2004 being the equivalence law.”

The judge condemned LASTMA for the practice of forcefully towing vehicles of alleged traffic offenders who do not resist arrest, saying it is the height of oppression.

“I must add that it is strange and bizarre that the first respondent (LASTMA) towed a serviceable vehicle in good working condition and thereby cause damage to the vehicle in the process when it has not been established that the applicant resisted the arrest of his vehicle, only for the first respondent to subsequently impose a fine on the applicant for a service not solicited by the applicant. To my mind, this is the height of oppression and impunity and it is condemnable,” he said.

“On the whole, I give judgment for the applicant in the following terms, I make a declaration that the obstruction, towage, seizure, and impoundment of the applicant’s car with Registration NO. AGL 93 DW on the 23rd November 2021 by the respondents is unlawful, illegal, and unconstitutional as same amounted to a gross violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to freedom of movement enshrined in Section 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“I make a declaration that the imposition and enforcement of LASTMA fine in the sum of N20,000.00 and LASTMA towing fine in the sum of N10,000.00 on the applicant without an order of a court of competent jurisdiction is unlawful, Illegal and null and void and the said fines should be paid back by the respondents to the applicant.

“The sum of N750,000 compensatory damages is awarded against the respondents for the violation of the applicant’s fundamental rights.”