The Police Public Relations Officer for the Lagos State Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, has clarified that actress Laide Bakare was stopped for violating traffic laws and subsequently fined for her offence, News About Nigeria reports.
Hundeyin shared this information on his verified X handle, @benHundeyin, on Sunday.
On Sunday, actress Laide Bakare took to her Instagram page to criticise the police, accusing them of forcibly entering her car and driving away with her 14-year-old daughter to an undisclosed location.
She claimed the incident occurred on Saturday along Ikorodu Expressway after the police accused her of driving in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane.
“For the first time, I experienced the brutal way Nigerians are being treated along that axis,” Bakare wrote.
“I can’t imagine how someone with a brain and sanity will enter someone’s car and drive it away with a minor in it. My daughter was left terrified over the incident. A lot of things are happening in this country that need to be attended to. The police only target big cars and vulnerable people to exploit and rob, just because they needed our ATM card to take out N70,000.”
In response, SP Hundeyin clarified that Bakare had indeed violated traffic laws and was fined accordingly.
“You were stopped for contravening traffic laws by driving on the BRT lane,” he stated.
“You chose to create a scene. You chose to remain out of your vehicle when it was being taken to the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) office. The officers were not going to succumb to your gimmick to hold them down at that spot. You rightly paid the correct fine for your offence—N70,000—into government coffers. You left with the receipt and your vehicle. Not a finger was laid on you.”
