It is not an over-exaggeration to say that motorcyclists popularly known as Okada-men are a nuisance and constitute to about 50 per cent of the security threats in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). That is not far from the truth as several reports of Okada riders used to perpetrate crimes in the city and outskirts.
Recounting her ordeal in the hands of an Okada rider, Mrs Rose Ene Bishop said she had boarded a motorcycle whose driver took her to an unknown location on the pretense of trying to take a shorter route to her destination. Unknown to her, the rider was an agent of ritualists. However, it wasn’t until she found herself on a large lonely pumpkin farm, at the outskirts of Kubwa that was when she realized that she had been kidnapped.
“But with God on my side, I escaped from the Okada rider when he pretended to be checking something in his motorcycle, not knowing that he was waiting for his partner in crime, who I saw coming to meet him. That was when in started running, and they chased after me. Fortunately for me, I was able to escape from them. Even when running, I fell and saw a headless body by the bush. That was when I realized I needed to save my life by all means.,” she said.
This is one among numerous horror stories of how Okada riders are used in perpetrating evil, which is one of the reasons the FCT administration banned the activities of Okada riders in the FCT.
Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the Minister of FCT, Ikharo Attah, in one of the raids on Okadas along the Airport Road, explained that FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello, gave an order that Okada riders should be removed from the main roads.
“Yet most times, we find them heavily driving against traffic on the expressway, contravening traffic rules, behaving unruly and hurting people. Okada riders do not understand the resolution of the Minister of FCT to keep the city clean and properly under control, think they could have ungoverned spaces to operate. The Okada riders along Lugbe FHA and Lugbe Car Wash have been a problem. While we are removing them from expressways, some of them in Lugbe Car Wash attacked our men. During the process, we recovered knives, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons from them,” he said.
The head of the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRT) team, Adamu Shehu advised Okada riders to stop violating traffic rules because anytime they are caught, their bikes will be impounded and crushed.
“They should always abide by the traffic rules and stop driving against the traffic because, when we see them, we are going to seize their motorcycles,” he said.
