Emmanuel Thomas, Lagos
August 20, 2015 – Not less than 528 taxis have been impounded by Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) for operating unbranded vehicles in Lagos.
Chief Vehicle Inspection Officer, Mr. Gbolahan Toriola who made the revelation maintained that steps are on-going to checkmate activities of unlicensed operators and to ensure security of lives and property in Lagos.
“It is for security, we are trying to regulate the operations of commercial vehicle operators, we have impounded over 528 unbranded taxis from January to date and we will continue, if you must operate a commercial taxi in Lagos State, it must be branded in the colour of Lagos taxis,” he stressed.
He reiterated the need for every professional driver operating in the state to always attend the Lagos State Drivers Institute (LASDRI) on annual basis. According to him, most accidents are caused by human errors arising from drivers, hence the need for them to be continuously trained and sensitized.
“If you are a professional driver, earning a living from driving, you must go through LASDRI every year; we need to change the orientation of our drivers because the vehicular density of Lagos State is about 224 kilometer road, in other states you have 24 or 10, even in the United States it is around 54, so we need to train and re-train the drivers,” the Engineer affirmed.
Toriola said that policies of the state in the transport sector were noble and aimed at changing the face of road transport.
He said the agency has introduced an auto inspector to verify vehicle documents while on road inspection duties, adding that documents such as vehicle insurance papers and road worthiness, licenses and number plates could now be automatically verified.
