The Lagos State Government has revealed that its ban on commercial motorcyclists, otherwise known as Okada riders, has recorded 85% compliance in the last 3 days.
This was made known on Friday by the Chairman of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit Taskforce, Shola Jejeloye, during a chat with journalists during the crushing of the commercial motorcycles which was confiscated during enforcement.
Jejeloye said that the enforcement of the ban would continue, so as to ensure the sanity of the environment.
Enforcement of ban to become more intense from next week
Jejeloye pointed out that the enforcement of the ban did just begin on Wednesday, June 1, but has been in force since February 1, 2020.
He said, ”Since then, we have been on it. It is just that people believe in violating the law, which I don’t think is good enough in a cosmopolitan city like this. But since June 1, there have been more than 85 per cent compliance.
“85 per cent compliance in the sense that we don’t see Okada on the roads, on the expressways any longer. The number has drastically reduced.
”They might be of the belief that the first one week of the enforcement will be thorough; after one week we are going to relax, anyway, we will watch and see.
”I am passing this message to them that from next week, we will do more intense enforcement. Even those areas we cannot get to this week, we are going to extend. So another phase will start on Monday.
”These three first days of enforcement is just to test-run it, to check the number of compliance, then the sustainability plan is the next phase, which we are going to enter on Monday.’’
Jejeloye said that there was no going back on enforcement of the Okada ban, as the government does not make a mockery of its policies and decisions.
Lagos Government provides alternatives to Okada
The Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederick Oladeinde, said that the government was reforming the transportation sector and integrating all the various modes of transport so that people could move from one mode to the other seamlessly and pay with just one ticket.
Oladeinde said that the first and last mile buses rolled out by the government would help to transport residents from where Okada operation was not allowed.
He said that there were some good Okada riders and the government had spoken with the union and asked them to form a cooperative as the government will give them the first and last mile buses, and employ some of them.
Oladeinde said, ”So, others who do not have skills, we do not want them in Lagos, and that is why you have the enforcement agency to walk around the clock just to make sure that people who do not need to be in Lagos are not in Lagos.
”We want people who have something to contribute to come to Lagos, people who have skills so that we can begin to develop the economic potential of Lagos state.
”So we don’t want anybody just coming into Lagos, just because they can pick up Okada or they can sleep under the bridge. So, this is going to be a resistance to them.’’
What you should know
- Recall that on May 18, 2022, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had announced a total ban of commercial motorcycle operators otherwise known as Okada riders in 6 local government areas in the state.
- This is coming barely 2 days after a task force in the state embarked on a serious clampdown of Okada riders on the Lekki axis in a move that appears to be connected to the outrage that greeted the killing and burning of a young man, simply identified as David by suspected motorcyclists in the Admiralty area of Lekki, Lagos.
- The affected local government listed by the governor includes Ikeja, Surulere, Eti-Osa, Lagos Mainland, Lagos Island, and Apapa.
- The new directive from the governor appears to be a follow up to the February 2020 restriction placed on the activities of these commercial motorcyclists in these areas.