Most okada riders are criminals – Lagos CP

Commissioner of Police Abiodun Alabi warned that violators of the ban would be prosecuted in mobile courts 24 hours after Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced “a total ban” on commercial motorcycles in six councils and nine development areas of the state.

Alabi said yesterday that mobile courts would be set up to prosecute violators of the directive, including passengers. The police have devised “strategies and techniques” to enforce the mandate, according to Alabi.

“There is a plan for a kind of mobile court, where offenders can be tried. Wherever you are arrested whether you’re the rider or the passenger, you will be charged expressly,” he said. “Over time, people have been enforcing it but they didn’t do it in a holistic manner. We are going to look into the intensity of the enforcement and also change our strategies and tactics. We will ensure that this law is enforced to the letter.” Speaking on the implication of the ban on crime rate, Alabi conceded that it may cause a spike in criminality, but he said the police are prepared to tackle any security challenge.

 “We are anticipating a spike in crime. We know that banning Okada will increase the crime rate in the state, and we are not unmindful of that. We are already putting in place strategies to contend with them. We are prepared for that,” he said. “The police have the capacity. And it’s not going to be the police alone that will handle this; there is going to be inter-agency collaboration. We are going to work in synergy to enforce this directive to the letter.

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“Most of the Okada riders are criminals. We have arrested a lot of them with locally-made pistols in the course of their operations. And most of them have been charged to court. “Most of them are using Okada as a kind of disguise and that’s why we have been having discussions with their unions. The best way out is to flush them out of our society. Most of them are masquerading as criminals.” Alabi said couriers, owners of power-bikes and private citizens who own motorcycles are not affected by the ban.
 “The blanket ban does not affect couriers that are not carrying passengers. And we will ensure that they are actually couriers and not people pretending to use it to work against the law,” he said. “And people who are private owners and are in uniform are exempted. People who own power bikes are not affected because it’s not meant for commercial purposes.”

Following a police crackdown on errant operators, protesting motorcyclists stopped the Alaba Rago sector of the Badagry Expressway.Over 200 motorcycles were reportedly detained by officers from Area E Command and Taskforce for allegedly breaking state traffic regulations.
Following last week’s murder of a sound engineer, David Imoh, by a mob consisting of cyclists at in Lekki, the police have tightened their grip on motorcyclists.The lynching and burning of Imoh drew considerable attention, prompting the state administration to reconsider motorcycle restrictions on key highways and some city routes.

Police officers on the watch for refractory commercial motorcycles across the state allegedly captured several of them in the act and seized their motorcycles.According to a source, the angry bikers stated that they were not riding on the prohibited routes, and that the police routinely grab their bikes and demand large sums of money to release them.

SP Benjamin Hundeyin, a police spokesman, said the area was now calm, adding that over 200 bikes had been recovered and some individuals had been apprehended.A 14-day notice to quit to traders at the popular Alabo Rago market to enable its remodelling was also issued by the state administration.

A joint state team led by CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, Commander of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), and CSP Sola Jejeloye, Chairman of the Lagos State Environment and Special Offences Unit (Taskforce), met the market’s occupants in clusters to inform them of the vacation order.The Lekki Phase I Residents Association (LERA) has also imposed a ban on commercial motorcycle operators and okadas in their neighborhood.

Mr. Yomi Idowu, Chairman of LERA, urged the state government to enforce the okada ban in the state, as well as the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and the New Towns Development Authority (NTDA) to clear hoodlums and miscreants from unfinished buildings in the community.Idowu described the killing of a sound engineer, David Imoh in Lekki as animalistic and senseless.

He said: “Intelligence reports reaching us are that following the raid on Okada riders and subsequent seizure of their bikes in Lekki Phase 1 by officials of Lagos State Taskforce, the riders, who believe the action was instigated by Lekki residents, are planning to attack the residents.”

 “We in Lekki Phase I cannot risk the lives of our people further…We are, therefore, taking proactive measures by banning activities of Okada riders with immediate effect. We choose to live and say no to Okada on our roads and streets,” he said.

Member of Board of Trustee Chief Emeka Nweze stated that people who prioritizes Okada riders are majorly domestic workers and site workers. He called on the state government to ensure owners of undeveloped properties start working on them or have them confiscated.
 “We cannot continue to harbour miscreants in those uncompleted buildings,” he said.