The menace of commercial motor cyclists, better known as okada, has continued to worry residents of the FCT, especially the suburbs where they are allowed to operate, with many calling for regulation of their operations as a way of curbing their excesses. Will FCT Administration do the needful? KEHINDE OSASONA asks.
Aside from riding their bikes in the most dangerous ways, thereby endangering the lives of their passengers and passerby, commercial motor cyclists, also known as okada has continued to threaten the comfort of most parts of the nation’s capital city, Abuja, just as residents are put at grievous risks even while not patronising them.
Section 42(1) of the Road Traffic Act of the FCT, Blueprint Weekend reports has no provision in the Abuja Master Plan for Okada to operate in the capital city. Nonetheless, because of the generosity of successive authorities in FCTA, the government reportedly gave some waivers so that the group can operate in the estates and suburbs of FCT after carrying out required registration.
Okada riders, however, have in their characteristic manner defied earlier ban stopping them from plying Highways and Trunk A and Trunk B roads in the FCT, just as this medium equally gathered that they have continued to exhibit defiant attitude despite being restricted to the suburbs.
The FCTA taskforce is reported to usually swoop on them anytime they cross the lines by abusing stipulated law, seizing their motorcycles which are often destroyed in order to curb their excesses.
However, findings by our correspondent have shown that communications may have broken down completely between the authorities and the okada riders association following repeated agreement breaches.
Blueprint Weekend gathered that before now, there had been various agreements between the representative of the okada riders and the authorities geared towards ensuring that their operations were restricted to designated areas and in accordance with laid down rules and regulations.
Some concerned residents also confirmed to this medium that, enforcing ban on Okada riders in Abuja may have become herculean so much that apart from evading registration, their activities has continually constituted nuisance to residents.
Worse still, many of these operators have no known address or any form of identification thereby constituting security threat as they can hardly be traced or held accountable when they get involved in criminal activities. This, many residents believe embolden them to constitute nuisance and break the law as was the case in Dei-Dei, a suburb of Abuja, which pointed to the direction that the unruly riders taking the laws into their hands.
As the dust was yet to settle, the same rampaging okada riders attacked Global Estate, in the heart of Lokogoma, Abuja, over the reported death of two of their colleagues.
Trouble, according to findings, started when a motorist allegedly hit two okada riders and ran into the estate for safety.
The attack, according to a witness, was aimed at apprehending the motorist; however, it snowballed into a large-scale face-off between the residents and the riders.
Residents speak
While relating his experience in the hands of the okada riders in 2021, a resident of Galadimawa, a suburb of Abuja, Saka Oniyide, told our correspondent that he, alongside other passers-by, narrowly escaped being killed by okada mob.
Oniyide insisted that vast majority of the riders were criminals.
He on that fateful night, an okada rider and his passenger, who turned out to be a bag snatcher, were being trailed by one of their victims and they happened to catch up with at the point where he (Saka) was waiting for transportation alongside two other passengers.
“A particular lady traced the guys to that spot and an argument ensued and the lady in question alleged that her bag containing documents and money was snatched and she identified the okada as the one that conveyed the man who snatched her bag.
“And the bike man rather than put up a defence, snubbed her and positioned himself on the queue to carry another passenger. At that point, some of us started asking questions as to whether he was actually a member of the association or the type that works with criminals to spoil the name of the group.
“To my surprise, he whispered to two others okada riders looking for passengers and before we knew it, they descended on us and two other guys who were showing concern the business was becoming an all comers affair.
“This was around 11pm. Our saving grace was one of the men who were also attacked for daring to ask questions. He took on two of them and other joined the fight without asking questions, beating and hurling stones and sticks at us.
“Other passers-by thought it was a fight between the okada people, so they left us to our fate. When we saw that they could kill us, we fled in different directions with wounds.
“As I speak, I still nurse my wounds on two spots on my back. They stabbed me with a sharp object and I got wounded, while the other guy was beating me repeatedly with a big stick.
“Luckily, we all escaped. The lady in question left immediately the argument was becoming hot, we thought she was going to call the police or something. It was such a nasty experience.”
Also commenting on the development, another resident Mr Ben Umuteme stated that the okada riders and their ways boil down to lack of education.
He said, “A lot of them don’t reason like your average educated person, this is coupled with the frustrating nature of the job which causes them to be provoked easily. That’s why most times, any little thing rather than opting for amicable settlement, they resort to violence.
“Take the case of what happened in Lokogoma, where an estate was torched by the rampaging okada riders when they were not sure whether the alleged hit and run driver lives there or not. So, in essence, lack of education for me most atimes fuels their unruly conduct.”
Okada riders’ defence
When our correspondent sought to speak to one of the okada riders to know their level of compliance to FCTA directives and what they were doing to apprehend the criminals in their midst, of the motorcyclists Mutazu Aminu, who spoke in pidgin English, told Blueprint that they have been warned by FCT taskforce against plying junctions and expressway.
“The people always arrest us and before they do that, they always pretend like passengers and arrest the bike. After that, they will ask us to bail it with N30,000. If you are lucky you can bail it or you may not be able to collect it again. So, we are not happy about that because it is our means of survival.”
On the infiltration of criminal okada riders, Mutazu said it was not peculiar to okada riders alone but also taxi and Uber drivers, arguing that no one has arrested or harassed the taxis and Uber drivers.
FRSC’s standpoint
Giving an insight into what the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) is doing to check the menace of commercial motorcycle riders in the FCT, the Corps Education Officer in Abuja, Bisi Kazeem,said the commission has carried out various sensitisation, awareness campaigns and enforcement to the target group as a way of achieving sanity on the roads.
“There was an ongoing nationwide clampdown on motorcycles and tricycles operating without number plates which is the recognized means of identification.”
