Lagos State Government has clarified that its just introduced parking policy is a measure to address gridlocks, reduce travel time and increase lifespan of roads across the state.

It said the arrangement was neither for witch hunting nor revenue generation.

It said that the policy was to ensure that people stop parking indiscriminately on setbacks and those using the portion of the road for commercial purposes, thereby putting pressure on the road facility as well as inflicting pains on other users do not engage in such without any check.

According to the government, the Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA) was created to find lasting solutions to the issues of illegal parking that had limited motorists to opportunity to commute freely across the state.

The clarification was made during a joint press briefing in Ikeja on Wednesday by the Commissioner for Transportation, Frederic Oladeinde, his Information and Strategy counterpart, Gbenga Omotoso, as well as the General Manager for LASPA, Adebisi Adelabu.

He added that with legal operation of LASPA, it would aid prompt reduction of traffic gridlock experienced by everyone, appealing to residents for cooperation with the agency on the agenda to remove some of the impediments on roads.

Oladeinde said, “As it is usually the case, especially in a political season, political jobbers and people with limited knowledge on the constitutional mandates of LASPA have tried fruitlessly to exaggerate the issue by playing to the gallery.

“LASPA was created to find lasting solutions to the issues of indiscriminate and illegal parking across the state. This will aid prompt reduction of traffic gridlock experienced by everyone. We, thus, enjoin Lagosians to cooperate with the agency and other similar stakeholders in carrying out its laudable mandate.

“The agency was established, among others, to promote parking policies tailored to suit the peculiarity of the State in line with modern international standards towards achieving a smart city.

” LASPA is also empowered to remove all impediments arising from indiscriminate parking on carriageways, thereby increasing the carriageway capacity on the roads, improving the flow of traffic and reducing travel time.

“First on our mandate is to improve the parking culture. We also believe that the establishment of the Authority also enables employment opportunities for the youths. In doing so, it is expected that revenue generation will come naturally.

“We have the mandate to charge fees on private commercial parks, non-commercial parks and other parking lots on any facility provided by the Authority.

“Let me emphasize that most private commercial parks charge the Lagosians between N500 to N1,000 parking dues per hour and each person parking at these respective parks can have four stops over which sums up to N2,000 or N4,000 daily.

“At the end of the year, the commercial park owner will realize over N182,500 or N365,000 if charges is per hour or gain a total N730,000 or N1,460,000 for 4 stopovers. This is the price most Lagosians pay to commercial park owners.

The Commissioner however stated, “LASPA levy of N80,000 divided by the No of days in a year result to N219 only against the above charges of commercial park owners. The difference is clear as the government is quite considerate and responsive in making the environment conducive for all.

“It is important to restate that, being a government that respects the constitution as the sole source of its engagement with the public, the State Government will never resort to any unconstitutional means in its dealing with the people.”

The LASPA boss explained that the agency’s mandate was not to make money from the people rather ensure that the state become more liveable for all irrespective of their status in Lagos.

Adelabu added that through the agency, the unemployment ratio in the state would reduce drastically as many would be for some of the parking services that would be going on afterwards in Lagos.

She noted that the manner of indiscriminate parking was not only unfair to the government but also to Lagosians that needed to use the road whenever they are blocked by motorists.

“We have being engaging owners of event centres, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Muslim association on the need to have parking space for their members and not park on the road, disturbing other road users in the state. We believe that if you want to build a mega church, you provide mega parking space.

“It is not solely about to make money, we are solving problems. We are not trying to take away commercial parks but if you are getting into the business, the State needs to regulate. It is important to have you on our database.”

“If you are making space for parking outside your title, you will need a permit. As long as you are using government setbacks, you still need a permit. This is because government may decide, in the future to use the setbacks for something else,” she added.