Assembly asks police to postpone 'Operation Restore Sanity On Lagos Roads', urges governor to fix bad portions to ease traffic

THE Lagos State House of Assembly has asked the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to postpone its scheduled Operation Velvet. The decision was announced during its plenary session oyesterday after the motion was raised by S.O.B. Agunbiade, the house’s Majority Leader.

A circular, which trended on social media at the weekend, tagged 'Operation Restore Sanity on Lagos Roads/velvet', had noted that the exercise was to tackle the recent upsurge in the volume of traffic and its attendant problems" on Lagos roads.

The document read: "The recent upsurge in the volume of traffic and its attendant problems have thrown up enormous challenges, including severe hardship on motorists and commuters on our highways, particularly, Ikorodu road, Apapa-oshodi Expressway, Agege Motor road, Lekki-epe Expreessway, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Lagos-abeokuta Expressway, Awolowo Road, Ikeja and the entore road networks in Lagos Island.

"Apart from the fact that this traffic congestion is caused by some bad portions of the roads, it has also been observed that disregard for traffic rules and regulations, by the intransigient commercial drivers and motorcyclists on the highways, contributed majorly to this phenomenon.”

However, the lawmakers, who commended the police for the initiative, asked that the exercise be postponed to give motorists a window for regularisation of their papers. They also urged the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to work towards sensitising the populace on the need to regularise their papers.

Proceedings of the session were revealed via a tweet on the Lagos Assembly handle that read: "The Majority Leader @Sobagunbiade who raised the motion, further read the resolution of the House on #OPERATIONVELVET as thus: This House commends the Nigeria Police Force for stepping up to their responsibility in curtailing reckless driving in Lagos.

"The House implores NPF to postpone the exercise and give a window for regularisation of papers by motorist; while calling on His Excellency @Akinwunmiambode to sensitize the populace on the need to regularize their vehicle papers and also call on Public Works Bureau to fix the bad portions on our roads to ease flow of traffic."