By Kenny Folarin, Abuja
Motorcycle, popularly called “Okada” business in the Federal Capital Territory is among the fastest growing business owing to large number of villages and streets in the federal capital territory.
The business commonly found among the hausas, and fulanis from Niger and other neighboring states is lucrative, averagely, an Okada rider makes close to ten thousand naira on daily basis after paying all the dues and maintenance.
Following the rising cases of insecurity in the country, the federal government on July 2022 proposed a ban on Okada Nationwide, the government after a security meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, informed the media that terrorists use Okada to abduct people for ransom.
They also engage in illegal mining to raise money for their operations and according to him, government considers these bans as the appropriate response to the problem.
Mixed reactions however trailed this intended pronouncement as many believed that baning Okada will not solve the issue but worsen it.
Some asserted that handling the lawlessness of Okada operators is a matter of competent governance.
Nigerians noted that can be trained, licensed and allocated to an area of operation, they can be made to belong to unions that are accountable to government so that lawbreakers can easily be nabbed. These unions can quickly identify any strange operator in their jurisdictions and report accordingly.
Others believed that in parts of the country where motorcycles have become the mode of transport for terrorists and other criminals, tricycles, bicycles and mini-buses can be used to replace motorcycles, at least for now. Thus, terrorists on motorcycles can be easily isolated.
However, the federal capital territory is not left out of these argument as the administration on several occasions have impounded and crushed thousands of seized motorcycles, this act has made some of them restrict operations to the villages rather than highways, but most worrisome part is how the Okada riders metaphormosed to dispatch riders.
Like wind storm, the dispatch riders have suddenly taken over the city with no recourse to traffic rules, they hardly wait for the traffic lights to turn green before they zoom off in high speed in order to meet up with their deliveries at the expense of motorists and other road users.
Worried by this lawless, the federal capital territory administration noted that all dispatch riders must be duly registered with the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO)latest by the first week of August or face sanctions.
In January, 2021, over 50 dispatch riders were arrested the Director, FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services DRTS, Alhaji Wadata Bodinga warned that the conduct and activities of dispatch riders in the city would no longer be acceptable by the Federal Capital Territory Administration and the motoring public.
“Just between Tuesday and today Wednesday, over 50 motorcycles and dispatch riders have been arrested for various offences, because majorly they are the major culprits when it comes to beating traffic and riding on one-way in the city which is not acceptable because they are toying with their own safety and the safety of other road users,” Bodinga said.
According to him, the directorate had directed all the people arrested for following one-way and those beating traffic to go for emotional evaluation at recognised hospitals in the FCT.
Dispatch riders operating in the FCT must register with the FCT Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) latest by the first week of August or face sanctions.
While the administration is doing all it can to sanitize the city and curb the excesses of dispatch riders, many of the dispatch riders ride under the influence of alcohol as no one can easily recognize them while riding, some even put on headphones and operate freely on expressway, to restore more sanity in the territory and obedience to traffic rules, stiffer and corporal punishment should be melted on them to have a safer and saner FCT.
