Lagos state government releases impounded vehicles as part of the move to scale up the palliative measure introduced by the governor.
Due to the cash crunch that has gripped the nation as a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Naira redesign policy, the Lagos State Government has started releasing impounded vehicles to their owners free of charge.
It could be recalled that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had three weeks ago introduced palliative measures to cushion the effect of the Naira redesign policy which has led to an extreme cash crunch in Nigeria.
As part of the move to scale up the palliative measure, the state government decided to release vehicles that were impounded for minor traffic offenses to their owners and waived the fines.
The release of the vehicles to their owners started last Saturday and it’s still ongoing.
Lagos Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde, in an interview on Tuesday, said the governor had extended the palliative measures by ensuring that vehicles impounded for minor traffic offenses were returned to their owners with the fines waived.
Oladeinde said, “when you look at what the governor proposed, especially during the cash crunch period, we have reduced public transport fares by 50%. So when you go on our BRTs and all the Lagos state-funded public transport, including Lag Ride, we have reduced the fare by 50% just to alleviate the suffering of our people”.
He went further to say, “ apart from that, moving away from transport, we have opened up food banks in certain areas. So we are beginning to give out palliative just to ensure that people get through this cash crunch period”.