• Thursday, March 28, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Insecurity: Oyo registers over 5000 Okada riders

Motorcycle riders’ moves to hit Lagos roads again

 

The Oyo State government says it has so far captured over 5,000 commercial motorcyclists in the ongoing registration.

The state recently started the registration to include biometric data capturing for all operators, and their owners in the state.

The move is in a bid to improve the security architecture of the State against the massive influx of commercial motorcycle riders.

Idowu Ogedengbe, executive assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde on administration and general services , who disclosed this while answering questions at the Guests’ Forum, of the Oyo State Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ibadan stated that more than 5,000 among the operators have been captured into the database of the state, and the registration is still ongoing.

According to him, the first thing every commercial motorcyclist must do before starting operation in the state is to get registered. The registration, according to him, would assist the government to track down those that may be using the means of transportation to commit criminal offences.

“The Ministry of Works and Public Transport is working in consonance with the Management Information Centre of the Oyo State Government to embark on a programme of registering and regulating all okada riders in Oyo State. If you are using your Okada for commercial business, we want to have your details in our database. We will capture the chassis and number of that okada. We will get the phone number and pictures of that Okada owner, and even that of the rider.

Ogedengbe warned that any commercial motorcycle rider that failed to register, would face the wrath of the law as the Oyo State Road Transport Management Authority (OYRTMA) has been directed to apprehend those that have refused to register.

Read also: Sanwo-Olu’s ‘will’ and the ban on Okada

“If any of them commits any offence or crime, we will be able to track them down. We are also concluding plans to kit them up with jackets. We have already given out the first contract and a total of 5,000 okada riders are already captured on that database.

“According to our governor, we are a government that depends on data, science and logic. We don’t just want to take a decision without first critically examining it, looking at it empirically. We all know that okada business is a means of livelihood for some of our people. If we ban it outright, it will affect a lot of household income.

“What we want to achieve with this is to reduce the security threat that those people riding on motorcycles could bring upon our state. We don’t want to do it in a way that we will impinge on the rights of any law-abiding okada rider, going about with his means of livelihood.

“Just like it happened in the United States of America recently where commercial motorcycles were crushed for violating the state laws, we shall also get there if it is established that any of the okada riders in this state violates our state laws. Any criminal elements among them shall be purged.

“So, if you are coming to Oyo State and you don’t have our registration, it is an immediate pointer that OYRTMA will spot you and arrest you because they would have known that you are not meant to be here. With that, before you even commit the crime, we have arrested you. We are going to pursue that aggressively.”

The registration by the state followed the ban of many okada riders in Lagos State and the influx of the displaced commercial motorcyclists to the state.

Ogedengbe however dismissed the speculation that the state is financially insolvent, though has funding challenges because the administration has many projects to attend to at the same time.

He added that the administration has provided streetlights in over 280 kilometres of road network across the state, and that more than 500 kilometres of road have either been completed or about to be completed within the past three years and about six weeks.