When the Lagos State government met with okada unions on Thursday at the state secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, it left them with an ultimatum: vacate restricted routes in 21 days or face the law.
The Okada (motorcycle in local parlance) has made a return to the expressways as the Lagos State government relaxed enforcement of the ban. But the honeymoon is over, says the latter.
The Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Tunji Bello, who chaired the meeting, said the government decided to give the riders a 21-day ultimatum for the unions to sensitise their members to vacate the restricted routes before enforcement would begin.
He said. “We have held a meeting with the okada unions on what should be done. We had a meeting with security agencies before now on the resurgence of okada riders on the highways.
“They said they thought that the government had relaxed the law; there is no relaxation. We have decided to give them three weeks for enlightenment because we are not doing anything new; what we are doing is to re-enforce the law.”
Bello said the government wasn’t about to return to the period before 2012 when Okada induced accidents stretched the health facilities.
He said, “We are not going back to that era again. For three weeks, they will educate their members on the need to leave the road. We need to save members of the public and the only way to do that is to restrict their movement and enforce our traffic law.”
The SSG stated that enforcement was relaxed during the last elections so that political parties would not capitalise on the enforcement to score cheap political gains.
“We relaxed enforcement during the general elections because we didn’t want crisis and violence. We needed to avoid crisis at that time so that political parties would not capitalise on it. The enforcement will be in full force after three weeks. This is a law already in place and it has to be obeyed,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Oluseyi Coker, said the law restricting okada riders from major roads was still in force as the government had not suspended it.
He said, “We are doing this so that when we start enforcement, they will not say government did not caution them. The violation is much and we want the unions to educate their members.
“The Lagos State Government will do it right. We assure the residents that there will be normalcy on the roads.”
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