Lagos warns event centres, nightclubs against obstruction of traffic

Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) has cautioned proprietors and operators of event centres, nightclubs, recreational lounges and organisers of all categories of social gatherings within Lagos State to desist from traffic obstruction.

The General Manager of LASTMA, Olalekan Bakare-Oki, gave the warning during his strategic surveillance and on-the-spot inspections at various high-traffic corridors across the metropolis.

Bakare-Oki voiced disappointment at the persistent trend in which glitzy events and festive assemblages flagrantly encroach on public roadways, thereby causing preventable traffic snarls, jeopardising emergency access routes, and subjecting commuters to stress.

According to him, Lagos under the leadership of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, remains resolute in its mandate to uphold order, discipline and equity on the roads.

He cautioned that the state would no longer condone the unbridled conversion of public spaces into parking extensions or spillover zones for commercial entertainment.

“It is both necessary and urgent to reassert, in categorical terms, that no individual, corporate body or event organiser, regardless of stature or affiliation, has the prerogative to appropriate public roadways as ancillary extensions of their private ventures or leisure domains,” Bakare-Oki warned.

The GM emphasized that any venue, be it a club, banquet hall or social arena, found guilty of wilful obstruction through indiscriminate parking, illegal closure of access roads or encroachment on road shoulders would be subject to immediate punitive measures with full-scale legal prosecution.

To ensure compliance and proactive intervention, he instructed all LASTMA Zonal Commanders and Monitoring Units to scale up intelligence gathering, intensify patrols, and deploy traffic officers to strategic hotspots particularly during weekends, festivities and high-capacity evening events.