Executive Director of NGO, Adeolu Oyinlola, takes Lagos Task Force to court and awarded $7 million compensation for seized car

A motorist, Adeolu Oyinlola, has been awarded the sum of 7 million naira as compensation against the Lagos State Government by a Lagos State High Court, for the seizure of his vehicle by the Lagos State Environmental and Special Crimes (Enforcement) Unit (also known as Task Force) for almost four months.

Oyinlola driver, Sunday Emem, while behind the wheel on the service lane of the Apapa-Oshodi Highway on August 14, 2021, was approached by a policeman for allegedly driving in a direction prohibited by law (one-way) when there was no indication on the road that it was one-way.

Oyinlola, who is the Executive Director of an NGO, Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative (ASRADI), said his vehicle was seized after he refused to part with the huge amount of money demanded by the Task Force policemen.

Emem was subsequently charged before a mobile court for driving in a direction prohibited by law, before magistrate LKJ Layeni, who, approximately four months after the trial began (after rejecting Oyinlola’s lawyer’s no-case submission and stipulating that Emem defend himself), handed down sentence on 25 November 2021; acquitted Emem of the charge and ordered the release of the vehicle, following a locus in quo visit by the magistrate, whereupon he found that a traffic sign indicating a one-way street had been erected following the arrest of Emem and Oyinlola, as evidenced by a fresh concrete base, indicating at the time that it had been placed recently.

Oyinlola subsequently wrote to the Lagos State Governor and the Attorney General of Lagos State, demanding the sum of $10 million as compensation for unlawful arrest and prosecution in the absence of proper signage, as well as blatant bad faith on the part of Police Task Force personnel, but his request was ignored.
Likewise, his request to criminally prosecute the two Police Task Force personnel who, as prosecution witnesses, swore under oath during the Mobile Court trial that a traffic sign was present at the time of the interception, for perjury; when they knew full well it wasn’t there. The owner of the car said he was left with no option but to approach the Lagos State High Court for intervention regarding compensation when the Lagos State Director of Civil Litigation proposed a compensation of N500,000.

In his judgment delivered on 14 April 2026 against the Governor of Lagos State and the Attorney General of Lagos State, Hon. Justice KO Alogba agreed that the first appellant was maliciously pursued by the defendants.
“The evidence before this Court revealed that the learned trial magistrate visited the locus in quo and found that the “Do Not Enter” sign relied upon by the arresting officers did not exist at the time of the arrest.
“The absence of reasonable and probable cause is itself sufficient evidence of malice and, as submitted by the learned counsel for the appellants, the tampering with evidence by erecting a new sign on the said road after the arrest was, in effect, evidence of malice.
“Ultimately, the appellants’ claims succeed. Accordingly, the judgment is entered as follows:
1) I declare that the possession of the appellants’ Toyota Corolla with registration number LND 896 ET and the prosecution of the first appellant for the crime of driving in a direction prohibited by law is unlawful.
2) The defendants are hereby ordered to pay the plaintiffs the sum of Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) as general damages.
3) The defendants are further ordered to pay the plaintiffs the sum of Two Million Naira (N2,000,000.00) as damages.”

An elated Oyinlola said: “It took four months to prove before a magistrate that in the absence of adequate signage there is no crime, and another fifty-four months to get compensation that did not cover the costs of litigation, but a point has been proved.”