The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit, popularly known as the Lagos State Task Force, has denied involvement in an incident involving a Toyota Tacoma driver who claimed officials demanded a permit for an inscription on his vehicle.
The controversy followed a video shared on Facebook by Jay Scotch Automobile Ltd, in which the motorist alleged that officials stopped him over the words “TRD 4×4 Sport Tacoma” displayed on the vehicle.
According to the driver, the officials claimed the inscription amounted to advertising and asked him to produce a permit.
He said, “I was driving this Toyota Tacoma with this TRD inscription, TRD 4×4 Sport Tacoma, and Lagos Task Force had to stop me and say I should provide a permit.”
The motorist further alleged that the officials threatened to damage his side mirror if he failed to comply.
He said the inscription was not placed on the vehicle as an advertisement, explaining that it came with the vehicle when he bought it in the United States.
“Something that came in like this from abroad, or from the USA where it was bought from,” he said.
Responding to the allegation, the Director of Press and Public Affairs of the Lagos State Task Force, Raheem Gbadeyanka, said the agency was not responsible for the incident.
Gbadeyanka explained that members of the public sometimes mistake officers from other government agencies for Task Force personnel, particularly when they encounter officers wearing camouflage uniforms.
He said, “Many of them don’t really understand or know the difference between one agency of government or the other; once they are accosted by any policeman dressed in camouflage uniform on the street, they ignorantly believe they are Task Force operatives.”
The spokesman also said the Task Force had stopped enforcing traffic-related offences following a directive from the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
“Ever since the Commissioner of Police of Lagos discretionally stopped us from engaging in any traffic-related offences, the agency operatives had stopped effecting the arrest of traffic offenders,” he said.
Gbadeyanka added that requesting a permit for inscriptions on vehicles was not within the agency’s responsibilities.
“It is also not part of our mandates to request for permits for inscriptions on vehicles,” he stated.
He further said Task Force personnel were not permitted to stop vehicles for traffic offences under the leadership of the agency’s chairman, CSP Adebayo Akerele.
Meanwhile, the issue has drawn attention to Lagos State’s regulation of branded vehicles. The Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency has a Mobile Advert Permit system covering branded vehicles operating within the state.
The permit applies to various vehicle categories, including cars, buses, pick-ups and trucks, and is subject to annual renewal.
However, the Task Force maintained that its personnel were not involved in the reported incident and that demanding a permit over a vehicle inscription was outside its mandate.
