Commercial Motorcyclists Decry Alleged Maltreatment In Ekiti

Some commercial motorcycle operators in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital have decried alleged maltreatment by leaders of their union, saying they were also being extorted.

The motorcyclists popularly known as Okada riders who took to the streets to stage a peaceful protest against their maltreatment yesterday called for the removal of the current members of their state executive.

The protesters who blocked some streets and major junctions accused their leaders of corruption, high-handedness, abuse of power, attack on colleagues and misappropriation of funds.

The riders expressed displeasure at the actions of their leaders and called on Governor Biodun Oyebanji to disband the executives and set up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the union.

They said apart from outrageous levies the union leaders were forcing them to pay for tickets, money is being mismanaged and miscreants recruited by the union leaders are fond of maltreating them.

The Okada riders claimed that one of them was recently pushed off his bike while on motion with a passenger by one of the recruited miscreants who fell and sustained serious injuries with the passenger.

The aggrieved protesters were later dispersed by a team of armed policemen.

Some of the leaders of the commercial motorcyclist when contact declined to comment on the matter as they took cover to avoid being attacked.