On Monday, the Oyo State administration warned against cracking down on unlicensed commercial motorcycle riders there.
Idowu Ogedengbe, the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Administration and General Services, spoke to journalists at a Nigeria Union of Journalists programme held at the Oyo State Correspondents’ Chapel in Ibadan. He said the registration was required to thwart terrorists and criminal elements who pose as Okada riders in the state.
He said: “What we want to achieve with this is to reduce the security threat that those people riding motorcycles could pose to our state. We don’t want to do it in such a way that we will infringe on the rights of any law-abiding Okada rider that is just looking for his means of livelihood.
“Just like it happened in the United States of America recently where commercial motorcycles were crushed for violating the state laws, we shall also get there if it is established that any Okada rider violates our state laws. Any criminal elements among them shall be purged.
“So, if you are coming to Oyo State and you don’t have our registration, it is an immediate pointer that the OYRTMA will spot you and arrest you because they would have known that you are not meant to be here. With that, before you even commit the crime, we have arrested you. We are going to pursue that aggressively.”
