14th August, 2014
By Jide Osokoya
As part of its strategy to capture power in 2015 from the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has started wooing motorcycle operators popularly known as okada riders with brand new motorcycles.
P.M.NEWS reliably gathered that despite the restriction of commercial motorcycle operators by the Lagos traffic law from plying 475 out of the 9,100 roads in Lagos, the PDP leadership in the state was said to have assured the riders of smooth operation on highways which they claimed, belong to the Federal Government.
Sources said some executive members of the two recognized commercial motorcycle ’associations in the state, Motorcycle Operators Association of Lagos State, MOALS and All Nigeria Commercial Motorcycle Owners Association, ANACOWA, disclosed this to the State Commissioner for Transportation, Comrade Kayode Opeifa, during a meeting with him in his Alausa office on Tuesday.
A source at the meeting revealed to P.M.NEWS that the motorcycle operators, who had gone to the commissioner to appeal for the review of some of the restricted roads in the traffic law and also complain to him about the extortion of their members by law enforcement agents, said the plot by PDP is to capitalise on the restriction to woo some of their members with new motorcycles.
A top official among the motorcycle operators specifically mentioned Mushin Local Government where he claimed that a lot of their members are now proud owners of brand new motorcycles given to them by some PDP leaders in the area, and that they were, however, compelled to paste PDP’s stickers on their bikes.
“The most shocking aspect of the meeting was when the official told us that the PDP leaders also assured them of plying highways such as Ikorodu road and Lagos-Abeokuta expressway without being arrested because they are federal roads,” our source disclosed.
Commissioner for Transportation, Comrade Opeifa was said to have told the motorcycle operators that he would take their request back to the state Governor, but warned them sternly against the non-usage of helmets. Already, the Lagos State House of Assembly is set to review the traffic law enacted in 2012.