Lagos State Police Commissioner, Abiodun Alabi, on Thursday said that most motorcycle operators, also known as okada riders, are criminals and must be taken off the road.
He stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, where he made clarification on motorcycle operators the recent ban will not affect.
Recall that Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday banned okada from operating in six local government areas of the state.
The six local government areas are Ikeja, Surulere, Eto-Osa, Lagos Mainland, Lagos Island, and Apapa. The governor said the measure would be extend to other LGAs soon.
Making clarification on those the ban will not affect, the state CP said, “It does not affect couriers, but the couriers will not carry passengers.
“We will have to make sure they are couriers and not pretending to be one.
“Then the other officers who are okada owners must be uniformed personnel who are going to their various place of work.
“Those who own power-bikes are not affected, because it’s not meant for commercial purpose.”
The latest ban is coming after a sound engineer, David Imoh, was allegedly lynched to death by okada riders in the Lekki area of the state over a fare dispute.
On whether the ban would not fail like it did many other times when the government banned motorcycle operations in the state, Alabi assured that enforcement will be more thorough this time.
Though he described most okada riders are criminals, the CP. acknowledged that banning of okada riders in Lagos may have its negative effects.
He said, “We know that banning the okada riders can actually increase crime rate. And we are not unmindful of that and we are already putting in place a lot of strategies to contend with it.
“We know that it will send a lot of them to unemployment. We are aware of that and are preparing for it.”