Lagos task force crushes 1,500 seized motorcycles

The Commissioner for Transportation in Lagos, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, along with the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Wale Musa, on Monday, observed the destruction of 1,500 seized motorcycles on the Lagos State Task Force premises in Oshodi.

The Lagos State Government posted images of the exercise on its X account on Monday.

The caption read, “Commissioner for #lagosMOT1, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, with the Permanent Secretary, Wale Musa, at the crushing of 1,500 seized commercial motorcycles at the Lagos State Task Force premises on Monday.”

The PUNCH reports that the Lagos State Government had banned the operation of commercial motorcycles, popularly called okada, on major highways.

The Monday exercise was not unconnected to the recent renewed clampdown by the state government on okada operators said to have returned to the roads.

The Director, Public Affairs for the Lagos State Task Force, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, had reiterated in October that Okada had been banned in the state but that enforcement had been difficult because of Lagos’ closeness to Ogun State.

In an interview with The PUNCH, he said, “Ojodu is a border town, so some okada riders are using the neighbouring state as camouflage whenever we want to arrest them. This has been hindering our work in that area because we would not want to overstep our boundaries.

“We will try as much as possible to develop another strategy, we will surely work on the congestion.”