Okada operators attack task force operatives in Apapa

COMMERCIAL motorcycle operators popularly called okada plying restricted routes around Apapa, during the last environmental sanitation day exercise in the state attacked operatives of Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation (Task Force) with stones, matchets, broken bottles and woods.

In the ensuing melee, a driver of the agency was injured on the head, while windscreens and front lights of four trucks belonging to the agency were vandalised with two other Hilux vehicles seriously destroyed.

Consequently, the agency said it successfully arrested five of the okada operators who were mainly Chadian and Nigerien and impounded 27 okadas.

Chairman of the Task Force, SP Olayinka Egbeyemi, disclosed in a statement made available to newsmen by spokesman of the agency, Mr Taofiq Adebayo, saying okada operators were sighted plying restricted routes in Apapa, picking and dropping passengers without any regard to the Lagos State Environmental, during the Sanitation Day.

According to Egbeyemi, the motorcycle operators later mobilised themselves in hundreds and attacked his boys with stones, matchets, broken bottles and woods.

SP Egbeyemi said the Lagos State government had since directed that the entire Apapa area be thoroughly sanitised of miscreants and hoodlums, including motorcycle operators plying restricted routes for a safer and a cleaner environment for the entire people of Apapa and the state at large.

He, therefore, urged all residents living in all nooks and crannies of Apapa and its environs to please give a maximum cooperation and support to the agency during the operation ‘Total Enforcement on Environmental Sanitation Exercise’ around Apapa.