Tragedy in Lagos…Banker Yinka Johnson Arrested for Allegedly Driving Recklessly & Killing LASTMA Official Hammed Balogun | Friends & Family Dispute Story – Appeal to Eye Witnesses to Come Forward

On Friday, August 10 2012, Mother of 3 and Stanbic IBTC Bank Employee, Yinka Johnson was driving along the Lekki Expressway. She was stopped by a member of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) who accused her of infringing traffic rules…

At this point, two versions of the story appear. According to LASTMA, Yinka killed one of their staff, Hammed Balogun by driving recklessly while attempting to evade LASTMA officials.
According to Yinka’s family and friends, a Danfo bus hit the victim, Mr Balogun and now Mrs Johnson is being falsely accused.

Below are the two accounts of the tragic incident. Yinka Johnson is currently being detailed in Panti Prison (with her 2 month old baby who is still reliant on the mother for feeding) while Hammed Balogun’s corpse is in the Lagos State Teaching Hospital awaiting an autopsy.

BN encourages any eye witnesses to come forward immediately.

LASTMA’s Account via their official website

A 33 year old Hammed Balogun a staff of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) was this morning killed by a banker along Lekki-Ajah Expressway while carrying out his official assignment at his duty post at Mega City, Ajah area of Lagos. The driver whose identity was revealed by the Auto Inspector device as Yinka Johnson a staff of IBTC drove in a Green Landover Jeep SUV with registration Plate number CY 276 LSD against traffic from Mega chicken inward toll Plaza two (2) and was intercepted by three officials of LASTMA led by the Head of Operations, Mr Quayum Asafa for traffic violation.

In a drama like scene, Johnson started driving recklessly in other to escape contravention and in the process ran over the officer. The deceased was rushed down to Germaine Hospital where he later died as a result of injury sustained from the accident while the corpse was deposited at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, Ikeja for autopsy.

Realising what she has done, she ran and escaped from the scene of the incident immediately into Ikota Estate, Ajah with the security men shutting the gate permanently. The situation became riotous as the security attached to the gate refused all entries to open the gate until the intervention of the Area Commander in charge of Area J, Mr Felix Uwamli who mobilized and called for backup before access could be gained into the Estate. The suspect was finally arrested and taken to Ajiwe Police station from where she was transferred to the Criminal Investigative Department, Panti for further interrogations.

Confirming the incident, the General Manager LASTMA, Engr. Babatunde Edu lamented the callous killings of two (2) of his officers within a month and attributed this to the impatient and indiscipline acts often demonstrated by reckless drivers in the State.

The General Manager recalled that as a responsive and responsible Government committed to the safety of lives and property of Lagosians, His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN on Thursday, August 2, 2012 signed into law the New Road Traffic Law that provides for Road Traffic Administration to sanitize the State of bad driving culture and also maintain law and order on Lagos roads.

Edu regretted that despite the efforts of the State government, the non -challant attitudes of recalcitrant motorists have resulted into loss of lives or maiming of innocent citizens. He hereby appealed once again to members of the public to desist from attacking the traffic officers and to see them as dedicated Nigerians who work under the sun and inside the rain to ensure that everybody gets home on time. He said that whenever the public is aggrieved about LASTMA activities, they should not hesitate to complain at LASTMA Headquarters rather than taking the laws into their hands and assured all and sundry of justice and fairness whenever such complaint is made.

Bola Ajao – PRO LASTMA

Yinka Johnson’s version via her friends

You might have heard the story going round about the Banker who allegedly killed a LASTMA official by knocking him down with her car.
Eye witnesses on the scene insist that the LASTMA official was in fact knocked down by a Danfo bus he was trying to accost AFTER he arrested the Banker for a traffic offence.
In fact, her car was about being towed as can be seen from the picture on the lastma website. You can also see from the picture posted there that the car was empty. How did she get back in, ram the towing vehicle and killed the LASTMA man?
LASTMA is trying to skew the story as murder and she is currently in detention. Please note that I have seen her car and it doesn’t have a single dent on it.
Kindly spread the word and encourage eye witnesses to come forward and give statements at Panti where she is being held.
She is a mother of 3 (including a 2mth old baby who is with her in detention). I know her personally.
Please note that the incident happened yesterday morning 10/08/2012 at Ikota, Lekki Express Way. She was on her way to work.
Please call 08037076890 if you have information or witnessed what actually happened. We need eye witnesses to counter their lies.

Statement 2
You may have seen the sensational headlines about a banker crushing a Lastma official to death. This is not true.

Yinka was sitting with a Lastma Official in her stationery car which was about to be towed when another Lastma official on the road was run over by a danfo (comercial bus) quite some distance from her car.

Her car bears no signs of impact as evidence and eye witnesses in the nearby taxi park confirmed this.

The stories accusing her of murder were instigated by unscrupulous Lastma officials who are peddling the false charges and trigger-happy journalists who published uncorroborated stories of the incident without visiting the scene, checking with eye witnesses nor checking with the accused.

A traffic offence and murder are certainly 2 different things. Yinka Johnson certainly did not commit murder. She’s a mother of three who instead of spending a peaceful weekend with her family is sleeping in a police station with her 2 month old baby, falsely accused.

In cases like this, there are no winners, it is so tragic. Please help if you can provide any eye witness information on this case.