From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
In December 2015, a few months after being sworn in as the 22nd governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai announced the disbandment of the vehicle inspection/identification officers (VIOs) in the state, citing corruption, indiscipline and lack of respect for the public as reasons for his decision.
At that time, many residents who had hitherto experienced the clandestine modus operandi of the VIOs supported the governor’s decision, hence, the resuscitation of Kaduna State Traffic and Environmental Law Enforcement Agency (KASTELEA) Law No. 12 of 2014 and subsequent recruitment and training of the first 2,550 marshals, aimed at ensuring sanity on the road and discipline by motorists.
However, along the line, that law was replaced with a law to establish the Kaduna State Traffic Laws Enforcement Authority (KASTLEA), 2017, removing the ‘environmental’ responsibility from it and replacing the ‘agency’ with ‘authority’. Somehow, KASTLEA has become a household name in the state ever since.
However, a few years after KASTLEA’s emergence, there have been several allegations of irresponsible acts by some of its men across their franchise roads in the state, from poor manners of approach to extortion, stick-wielding to dangerous chasing of suspected traffic offenders, which has led to deaths and maiming of several motorists who they were empowered to protect.
For example, on October 8, 2020, near the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) junction, KASTLEA men allegedly chased a vehicle that led to the killing of some people and injury of others who were in a commercial tricycle held up by a traffic light in that axis of the road.
Again, on Friday, February 4, 2022, KASTLEA marshals allegedly engaged a truck driver and his assistant, popularly called motor boy, around Ungwan Sarki, Kaduna. The confrontation led to the death of the young man, while his boss cheated death though, his skull was severely damaged by the “Kato da gora’ stick-wielding officers.
Sharing her experience with this correspondent, a motorist, who pleaded anonymity noted that men of KASTLEA have not been doing enough when it comes to the sensitization of motorists on the best way to use the road and make it safer for them and other road users, but they are quick to fine people at every opportunity.
“The law that established KASTLEA in 2017 said, ‘For speedy trial of traffic offenders under this law, there shall be established by the chief judge of the state mobile courts to be presided over by magistrates who shall sit at places to be determined from time to time to conduct trials in respect of the offences set out in the schedules to this law’.
She said: “How can you ask someone to pay N20,000 simply because one of the brake lights on his car was not working. Again, the law that established KASTLEA scheduled the N20,000 fine if your lamps (meaning more than one) are not functioning.”
However, Philip Arome Omache, radio corps marshal, called on the citizens to desist from taking the law into their hands, just as he charged KASTLEA to step up their game to gain confidence of the people.
“For the past two years, KASTLEA has been working as if they were given a target. Instead of KASTLEA to arrest people and educate them on the offence and the implication of such offences, they are after the fine without education, which is why the road offences continue to grow,” he said.
Reacting, AGM, Zone 5, KASTLEA, who was simply identified as AGM Aminu, denied the allegations against his outfit, saying: “Unfortunately, once something like this happens, they will just conclude that we are the ones pursuing the vehicle. Are we not going to work on the road again?
“We, in KASTLEA are brothers and sisters of people in Kaduna. We are not from another planet. I’m just telling you the truth. People should learn to remember we are citizens and we should be treated with dignity when they see us on the road as seen in other countries.”
But a security source, who didn’t want his name in print, alleged that many of the KASTLEA men who engage motorists in physical combat were miscreants engaged by the unscrupulous staff of the outfit, and nothing tangible has been done by the leadership of the outfit to tame them, while the state government pretends as if it is not aware of what is happening on Kaduna roads.
With growing anger and hatred towards KASTLEA operatives due to bitter experiences citizens are recording at the hands of some marshals of the traffic enforcement outfit and government’s silence on punitive measures against the guilty marshals by the authorities concerned, the evil days may have only been postponed, if steps are not taken to address the concerns of the citizens whose taxes are used to maintain the outfit.