The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority has said that some passengers harass officers of the agency out of ignorance while defending drivers of commercial buses, commonly known as danfo.

The Director, Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department of LASTMA, Adebayo Taofiq, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday.

He also said the belief that commercial buses were ignored many times when committing offences was wrong, as the authorities had strategies to bring them to book.

Taofiq said by the time such vehicles were captured by LASTMA officers while in transit, due to the vehicle features earlier taken and forwarded to be looked out for, passengers in the vehicle would not be aware of the driver’s offence.

“We see some passengers coming down from the bus and descending on our officers and some of them have been harmed and beaten up in the process.

“The passengers claim that the bus driver had not done anything without them having prior notice that the driver had committed an infraction previously.

“We just don’t pounce on these persons, an infraction had already been committed and we will not continue to tolerate these abuses on our officers, ” he said.

He added, “The fact remains that at the point few of them are committing these traffic infractions, as noticed by private car owners, and they’re not apprehended, does not mean that we don’t have any plan of impounding their vehicles.

“For example, if you have a commercial bus coming from Mile 12 going to Onipanu, if it commits any traffic infraction in Ketu, we have to be strategic if we want to arrest and impound the commercial bus, unlike the car owners.

“They (bus drivers) don’t care for their vehicle to be arrested, they even get rid of anything ahead of them just to escape with their bus.

“In such cases, our officers have to use their discretion in order not to cause any havoc.

“We use the new system that the government gave us, which is the CMS camera, which is the traffic management device, and at times, officers use their phones to capture them,” he said.

In March, Adebayo disclosed that LASTMA impounded 123 vehicles for illegal parking in the Ebute-Ero and Apongbon under-bridge areas of the state.