Gombe to empower Keke Napep operators to replace Okada

 Gombe state governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, has disclosed plans to empower Keke Napep operators for possible replacement of the already banned Okada business in the state.

The governor stated this during a media chat on NTA and other radio stations in the state. He stated that the partial ban on Okada in the state was to stem and curtain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

The governor further stated that due to the security situation in the Northeast region and the country at large and the atrocities committed using Okada, most states in the region have banned Okada and they are going for other means of movement and transportation.

“Gombe is exempted from security challenges of rape, kidnapping and other social vices. In fact, the use of Okada further aided the spread of COVID-19 to Gombe because our borders were closed when we recorded our index cases while Okada riders were reportedly smuggling people into and outside the state,” Governor Yahaya said.

He added that the government is looking at ways of empowering and encouraging tricycle operators by ordering more of the machine into the state.

 “The ban on Okada was not to render our youth jobless or a target for anyone. We are only doing the needful and going by the way these motorcycles are being used in kidnapping and the perpetration of other crimes, we really have to do something about it,” Governor Yahaya stated in an Hausa media chat.

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