Lagos State government said it has concluded plans to commence the crushing and recycling of over 4,000 impounded commercial motorcycles popularly called okada, in line with the provisions of the State Traffic Law 2012.
The State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, disclosed this on Monday while speaking with journalists at the Olusosun refuse dump site in Ojota.
He said the recent clampdown on okada across the state was a fall out of the government’s resolve to address the security concerns posed by their operations. According to him, criminals were in the habit of using okada to perpetrate crime and get away.
The Lagos Traffic Law 2012 prohibits the operations of okada and tricycles also known as Keke Marwa from operating in certain routes and areas across the state.
This was just as Owoseni said, that due to the constant challenges of enforcing the law, the state government was already considering an outright ban on okada operations in some areas of the State, starting with the Lekki and Victoria Island axis.
Owoseni said the state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, had directed that the police and other security agencies concerned should redouble efforts to ensure the Law was complied with, assuring that the clampdown would be sustained vigorously on a daily basis.
“It would not be one off. So far, we have impounded about 500 motorcycles since we started our renewed efforts and we now have a total of about 4,000 bikes ready to be crushed.
“The law made provisions on how those motorcycles should be handled and the law also made provision on how to handle those that have flouted the law itself,” he said.
According to Owoseni, the decision to crush and recycle the impounded motorcycles is in accordance with the provision of the Law. Aside impounding the motorcycles and tricycles, the enforcement would also clampdown on the operators and residents who patronised them, adding that mobile courts would be instituted to try arrested offenders.
“The operators of the commercial motorcycles and those patronizing them, with time, you will get to see the Mobile Court going around to try some of those that have been arrested.”
“What we are saying here is that we want people in Lagos to know that there is a law and the law is made for a purpose, if all of us obey the law and conform, the better for us,” the police commissioner said.
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