FCTA Crushes 200 ‘Okadas’
By: Wisdom Acka
Two Hundred commercial motorcycles, popularly known as Okada, have been crushed in Abuja.
The exercise is part of operation impound and crush of commercial motorcycles in the nation’s capital, Thursday.
The Director, Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), Dr. Abdulateef Bello, who made this disclosure during the exercise, lamented the massive return of commercial motorcycles to Abuja, vowing that there was no going back till the Administration achieve zero level on Okada activities in illegal areas in the FCT.
His words: “This is the fifth edition in the series and I have no doubt that from the enforcement we have carried out, we have susbstancially reduced the number of motorcycles in Abuja.”
According to him, “it seems as if the efforts would still be on until we achieve the zero level of this exercise, but something tells me that most of these motorcycle riders are those that engage in criminal activities like drug peddlings. As they are not tired we won’t be tired”.
“I think they are well over 200 that we are crushing today. We will continue to take them week by week untill we get rid of them,” he added.
The Director said, “We have already given order to all our commands that anywhere they are sited plying wrong routes, they should be impounded and handed over to DRTS”.
Senior Special Assistant to FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement, Comrade Ikharo Attah, decried that despite several warnings and advocacy from the Administration, motorcycle riders continued to violate traffic rules in FCT.
Attah said, “It is new year and we are surprised at the number of motorcycles we got at Guzape, Jahi, Asokoro, Durumi and Garki.”
“The FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, has made it clear that motorcycles cannot operate in these key areas – Garki, Asokoro, Lugbe, and city center; and so shall it be”.
“Look at the number, may be some persons who travelled home came back with their motorcycles”, he stressed.
Appealing to okada riders, the Minister’s aide said: “Please go and operate where it is legal, and you won’t have problems.”
“The legal areas such as Kwali, Abaji, Gwagalada, etc., where you are to operate are large. The biggest pain is for those who bought the motorcycles. We are all pained doing it”.