Police harass, brutalise us on unrestricted roads – Okada riders
Some men of the Lagos State Police Command and task force enforcing the state traffic law on okada riders in Ojodu and Berger area now employ brutal tactics to arrest riders who violate the law, findings by Shagari News Metro have shown.
Our correspondents, who went around spots that served as okada
parks in Isheri, a police van marked ‘Magodo GRA Phase II Residents
Association Security Patrol Van’ swung by a motorcyclist riding along
the road and hit him.
The rider fell into a ditch beside the road and the motorcycle fell on him.
The policemen jumped down from the van,
pointed their guns at the rider as one of them immediately took the
motorcycle and mounted it.
The rider, who sustained injuries on his
head and leg, climbed onto the police van while one of the policemen
rode the motorcycle behind.
Residents of the area said the incident was a common occurrence in the area.
Some of the riders, who spoke with our
correspondent on Thursday, also accused the state task force of
arresting and impounding motorcycles on roads that were not classified
as out of bound to okada.
A group of okada riders on
Kosoko Street, off Ogunnusi Road, Ojodu, said even though the street was
not “off limit,” the Lagos task force had on many occasions impounded
motorcycles on the street.
One of the riders, Ibrahim Adejobi, said, “After the vandalisation of a BRT bus on November 7 by some okada
riders, the task force came here with a Black Maria and confiscated
every motorcycle in sight irrespective of whether it was commercial or
private.
“Since that day, it was like they
renewed their wickedness. Any motorcycle close to the Kosoko Junction,
even if the motorcycle is not plying the Ogunnusi Road, would be
impounded.
“There was a time a motorcyclist at the
junction saw them and sped into the street. They chased and impounded
the motorcycle. They then proceeded to impound every motorcycle they saw
on Kosoko Street that day.
A store owner at Ojodu, Caroline Ugwu,
said that in the last two weeks, she had witnessed the brutality of task
force members about four times in the front of her store.
An okada rider, who identified
himself simply as Abubakar, said one of his friends sustained a serious
injury when a van used by task force officials knocked him down while
trying to impound his motorcycle.
“He sustained a burn from the motorcycle’s exhaust pipe when he was knocked down and the okada fell on his leg. They did not even care. They took the motorcycle and put it in their Black Maria and left,” he said.
Okada riders in Magodo GRA Phase II and its environs also lamented police harassment on routes that okada were not prohibited.
An okada rider, Ola Ishola, at
the Magodo Phase II gate park said the police attached to the Ogudu Area
Command had made it a daily routine to impound motorcycles in the
outlying streets in the area.
He said, “Despite the fact that we ply
Cele, Love All, Aladelola, Oluwalogbon, Dairo and Makinde streets,
which are not part of the restricted routes, policemen still come into
these places to harass us.
“These policemen usually come into these
streets with rented commercial buses and as soon as they come, they
will impound our motorcycles and whisk away the riders to their station.
“At the station, they will demand for sums between N10,000 and N20,000 while threatening to take the okada to Alausa unless their demand is met.”
Another rider in the area, Mohammed Isa,
said the constant harassment had made many of them sustained various
injuries in an attempt to evade arrest.
He said, “I wonder why people brazenly
derive pleasure in meting out degrading and inhuman treatment to fellow
human beings. For crying out loud, we are not contravening any section
of the traffic law, yet they still harass us.
“The last time they stormed our park, about three of us got injured when they started hitting us with their gun butts.
“Even while riding on the road, they
don’t bother if we are carrying passengers or not. They simply double
park their vehicle sometimes, hit us and wound our passengers. We now
live in perpetual fear despite operating lawfully on the road.”
In Isheri, residents said since the
incident of November 7, when policemen attached to the state task force
embarked on indiscriminate clamp down of okada, commercial motorcycle riders no longer operate in the area.
A resident, Segun Joshua, said, “On
November 7, those policemen even went to the extent of impounding
motorcycles parked inside residential apartments.
“Now you can hardly see an Okada
plying inner streets of Isheri, Olowora, UNILAG Estate, Gateway Estate
area and its environs. Government should really intervene and restore
normalcy.”
When contacted, the police officer in
charge of the task force, Mr. Bayo Sulaiman, said on the phone that the
day the BRT was vandalised, some okada riders who fled into different streets were the ones arrested.
Sulaiman said, “We are talking about motorcycles that have two wheels.
How do you arrest riders without them falling down especially when they are trying to evade arrest?
“This country cannot develop when people
keep opposing good things. All these reports that the task force is
being brutal are just ploys to oppose the law which we all know is a
good thing. The chairman of the riders’ association in the areas you
mentioned knows the truth.
“About the policemen from Magodo Phase II who you say knocked down the okada rider, I cannot comment on that since that was not done by our task force.”
But the Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, was not available for comment when contacted.
After calls and text messages were sent to her phone, an assistant, who answered her phone, said she was “on air.”
However, subsequent calls were not answered.
