Stiff Laws Against Okada Out Soon

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The Lagos State House of Assembly has directed its Committee on Transportation, Commerce and Industry to liaise with the Ministry of Transportation to present a bill for the amendment of the existing traffic regulations and laws to identify grey areas in order to accommodate all present challenges experienced by commercial motorbike operators in the state.

This followed the presentation of a report on the activities of commercial motorcycle riders in the state by one of the lawmakers, Sanai Agunbiade.

Agunbiade, who chaired the ad-hoc committee set up to look at the activities of the riders, advised that the proposed bill should address the restrictions on areas and closing time while taking cognizance of owners of motorcycles that use same purely as personal means of transportation within the state.

The recommendations also stipulated that no rider should be allowed to operate in the state without a rider’s permit and he must be attached or registered with an approved park.

It also suggested that private owners who use motorcycles as means of transportation and business should not be eligible to have any other person to ride with them on the motorcycles and must conspicuously display a card to the effect that their motorcycles are for personal use, while commercial riders must be restricted to specific number of passengers.

The House further recommended that there should be stipulated offences that would result in the confiscation of motorcycles where the owners err. “Any rider involved in an accident resulting in bodily injury to himself and or another person, if found negligent, should be prosecuted and his motorcycle impounded irrevocably while such riders card be withdrawn and he be barred from operating commercial motorbike in the state,” the recommendation stated.

The members all agreed that okada operation would have been banned in the state but for the financial situation of the country and its citizens.

They also complained that motorcycles and their operators had done more harm than good and therefore needed to be strictly regulated.

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