For a couple of days now, living in Lagos has become a sort of hell to some people. No thanks to the ban on commercial motorcyclists otherwise known as Okada from plying some roads in the state.
The enforcement of the ban took a new dimension early this week when the okada operators took to the streets to protest indiscriminate arrest of their members and subsequent seizure of their motorcycles, and the process, destroyed public facilities including BRT buses.
All these have made life miserable for Lagosians. At every bus stop in Lagos state, commuters are seen stranded while some were left with no option than to take a long trek to their destinations.
Some of the commuters who spoke to our reporter said they lacked appropriate words to described the hardship they are going through and called on the state government to immediately address the situation.
Even car owners were not spared. The ban has witnessed an increase in number of vehicles on the roads as those who rarely used their cars for fear of being held up in traffic and miss business engagements had no option now than to use their cars and spend hours in traffic.
Those who commented on this issue were of the view that the government should have put some measures in place before full implementation of the new laws to cushion the effects on the people.
For Mr Christopher, a journalist with one of the national dailies in Lagos, the ban has made his work more difficult, particularly in meeting up deadline.
“Yesterday, I spent over an hour at a bus stop in the morning and over two hours in the traffic. The same thing happened in the evening. It was a terrible experience that I wouldn’t want my enemy to have.”
Most of the people who shared their ordeals maintain that ban on okada was not bad in itself but stressed that everything was wrong about the implementation. They accused police and other law enforcement agents of extorting money from okada riders even from those plying approved routes.
They suggested that for the law to be effective, government should provide alternative means of transportation, opens new routes and put existing roads to proper shape. They also called for close monitoring of activities of enforcement agents to check their excesses.
- If you are in Lagos, share your experience with us.
- Tell what you think should be the solution, the best ways to go about the implementation of the new traffic laws.
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D ban on Okada is totally barbaric. Well, who can blame dem. Stealing govt money can give dem what they want at anytime of d day. Now, all those policemen and soldiermen dat are carrying passengers, why cant they also seize their machines? This is a case of those who made d law breaking d law
ReplyDeleteA welcomed development in my quarters. I hope a total ban will come up in the nearest future.
ReplyDeleteThese are fathers & husbands with responsilities, this is a means of living 4 them,secondly, Okada is very key in dis city, traffic jam & someplaces u cant go witout them,
ReplyDeleteThis is not fare i went through hell before i could get a bus going to Apapa this morning, the issue of banning the Okadas' is a wide range is really telling on the masses, Fashola may mean good to the people but it was wrong at the same time because his government did not put other structure in place to ease the poor masses transportation instead of banning okada and this may also affect ACN in the next election, because the kind of law Fashola is imposing on the people is too harsh as the country is not yet ripe for it, it is the same Okada people that voted for Fashola, what Fashola could have, he could have made means for Okada people by crating another separate lane for them so that it will not affect the people nor the okada people since there is no job and some people depend on this okada to feed and some people even take this okada on hire purchase, so why banning the okadas? I for one not in support.
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