Following a raid by a combined team of policemen to weed out criminal gangs using motorcycles to operate in the area on September 2, 2015, residents of FESTAC Town have called for the total ban on commercial motorcyclists popularly known as okada in the community.
A team of security operatives drawn from the state task force, Rapid Response Squad, FESTAC, Satellite Town and Trade Fair police divisions, had stormed the area in the early hours of last Wednesday, impounding over 100 commercial motorcycles in the process. The raid resulted to a scuffle between the policemen and okada riders, leaving one of them – Emmanuel Omofule – dead at the end of the day.
In a telephone conversation with Saturday PUNCH on Friday, Shola Fakorede, one of the community’s leaders, said they were happy with the raid by the police, calling for a complete ban on the activities of commercial motorcyclists in FESTAC.
“After the visit of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police to FESTAC Town on August 22, 2015 and his disclosure to residents on the security threat posed by okada riders and criminal hideouts, they carried out a raid last Wednesday where many of these guys disturbing our peace and their bikes were impounded.
“We are grateful to the Police for their pro-active action and urge them to sustain the raids until okadas are completely removed from FESTAC Town. We are fully in support of this action taken to improve the security of the area,” he said.
A resident of the area, Ezekiel Okolosi, told our correspondent that the total removal of commercial motorcyclists from the area would return sanity and boost the security situation of FESTAC.
“These okada guys are very ruthless and can do anything that pleases them. Many of them work with the criminals that have been terrorising us here. Though, they help people get to their destinations faster, our environment will be better off without them,” he said.
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