Okada Riders Decry Ban On 475 Roads

Okada riders in Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria, have decried government’s ban on them from plying 475 major roads in the metropolis. They said the action was wicked.

The new Lagos State Road Traffic Law 2012 signed into law by Governor Babatunde Fashola last week bans okada riders from plying major roads in the metropolis.

Speaking Monday with P.M.NEWS after a meeting between the state government and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigera, RTEAN, Mr. Tijani Pekis, Chairman Motorcycle Owners Association of Lagos State, MOALS, lamented the ban, saying it was as good as banning okada operation in Lagos entirely. “The people you are asking to vacate the road, what is the provision for them? They said they banned okada in Abia State, all these states you are mentioning, are they Lagos State? Now you say that government recognises MOALS and ANACOWA, all these mushroom associations still in existing, am I a policeman and is it my duty to police them?

“Now, I am assuring you, we are going to have a press conference tomorrow (Tuesday) and we will be asking our members not to ply highways again,” he said.

According to him, “the big question is, we are talking of mega city. Even in rural areas, you are still restricting routes, what are we saying? Somebody should not ply from Iyana Ipaja to Ikotun, Ekoro road. In Surulere, from Itire to Yaba, you should not ply it, from Ijesha road to Adeshina, okada should not ply it.

“What are we saying, you have restricted okada over 80 percent in each of the local government areas; what are we saying?” At the meeting, Pekis, pleaded for an authorisation to enable them compel members to comply with the new Road Traffic Law as it affects its members.

He also pointed out that law enforcement agencies hindered “us from enforcing discipline on our members. In most cases, they say we are not the enforcement arm of the law, if we are given the full government backing, you will find out that we would take charge and ensure members comply with the dictates of the law.”

At the meeting, the state government gave 90 days to commercial transport operators in the state to re-register their vehicles to ensure safety and security of residents. Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa stated that the registration was meant to create a new data base of vehicle owners as well as their conductors, saying that hackney permit would be issued as one of the vehicle particulars that commuter bus operators were supposed to have.

Opeifa said contrary to reports, the state government did not ban members of the NURTW but that it only banned them from collecting dues in motor parks, saying that government was ready to sanitise activities of the transport unions. “We recognise the right to organise yourself into union, whatever obligation in terms of dues union members owe should be collected but the way it is collected is what should not continue,” he said.

Opeifa also urged the okada union leaders to direct members to comply with the law, adding that members could come together and operate commuter buses in areas where they were restricted in order to remain in business.

According to him, the government had no intention to take anybody off their businesses, stressing that the public demands that they should be restricted from the 475 roads contained in the law.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga