…As OYRLEA, OYRTMA, and others Sensitize PMS members
The Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority (OYRLEA) alongside the Oyo State Road Management Agency (OYRTMA), on Tuesday, partnered with the Nigerian Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Oyo Chapter, sensitised members of the Oyo State Park Management System (PMS).
The sensitization and awareness programme held in Ibadan was on the need to be law-abiding and comply with the Existing Laws in the State on Traffic Regulations, Drug Abuse, Environmental and Sanitation Laws and other related regulations.
Speaking at a Stakeholders Forum organized by the Chairperson, Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Agency (OYRLEA), Rtd. Hon. Justice Aderonke Aderemi said the programme was in pursuance of Governor Seyi Makinde’s order to deal with arbitraries in the State and an unceasingly intense clamour for a healthy society devoid of contraventions, defiance, encroachment and vice wrong.
She called for cooperation from the Park Management System in the State, noting that “Ignorance is not an excuse in law; sensitization is key to attracting local and foreign investments by maintaining law and order.”
Justice Aderemi announced that traffic and environmental offenders would henceforth be tried instantly in mobile court.
Stressing the need for compliance with enacted laws, she highlighted the role of the OYRLEA, established by a bill signed into law by Governor Seyi Makinde in April 2024, in ensuring adherence to traffic, environmental and sanitation, anti-open grazing and other related regulations.
In a related development, the Oyo State Road Transport Management Agency (OYRTMA) has reported the arrest of 1,079 motorists for various traffic offences across Thirty-Three (33) local government areas within the past month.
The OYRTMA Chairman, Major Adekoya Adesagba (rtd), disclosed that traffic violations such as one-way driving and ignoring traffic lights and personnel assaults cases were among the common offences recorded.
“Tragically, the month also saw seven fatalities, including a nursing mother, at the Iwo Road-Ojoo stretch of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; one-way offenders are killers”, he added.
To curb these violations, Adekoya announced stricter penalties, including a fine of ₦100,000 and failure to pay leads to the seizure of vehicles for three months before the auction for one-way driving offences. “OYRTMA will no longer tolerate lawlessness. There must be order on our roads,” he emphasized.
In a similar charge, the NBA Chairman, Oyo State Chapter, Alhaji Ibrahim Lawal, emphasized the enforcement procedures, adding that a society devoid of law is not a healthy one as laws are made for humans. He also offered the assistance of the association to get justice ‘pro bono’ for the lower class.
The NDLEA Assistant Commander of Narcotics, Asiru S. Titilope(Mrs), warned against the inherent dangers of the use of psychoactive substances and narcotics and the resultant effects and threats they pose to lives. Life imprisonment is the penalty for drug traffickers she added.
In his address, PMS Chairman Amb. Tomiwa Omolewa declared it a criminal offence for commercial tricyclists and motorcyclists to operate on expressways, urging OYRTMA to arrest and prosecute violators.
He pledged the cooperation and allegiance of the PMS to abide by and safeguard the laws of the State.
The forum aimed to foster collaboration among agencies and promote awareness of the newly enforced rules for safer and more organized road usage for sustainable development in Oyo State.
The sensitization and awareness forum took place during the monthly stakeholder meeting of the ‘PMS’ representatives and drivers in all the interstate LGAs.
