Okada: Task Force Terrorizes Lagosians 

Ambode.....unleashed Task Force on motorcyclists

The determination of the Lagos state government to rid the state of motorcycles also known as Okada remains strong as ever. Just early this month the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration followed in the footsteps of its predecessor as it destroyed over 3000 motorcycles seized from Okada riders.
Despite the huge financial loss to the owners some defiant motorcycle riders who use it for commercial purposes have continued to take the risk. In their quest to make a living they defy the law banning motorcycles on the major highways, regardless of hard line posture adopted by the state to stop them.
In 2012, the Lagos State Government banned okada riders from plying 475 roads in the metropolis, leaving them to do their business in some inner roads. But stubborn commercial motorcycle riders have simply failed to comply.
This must have informed the renewed determination to deal with the problem. As part of the effort the state government has recently mandated the Task Force on Environment and Special offenses to once and for all deal with the problem of okada riders. The chairman of the agency, Taiwo Adeoluwa, a Superintendent of Police, who was appointed late last year by Governor Ambode is therefore poised to deal with the problem.
The task force is made up mainly of Mobile Policemen, the elite force of the Nigerian police and the Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI an agency of the state government, led by one Jimoh Amusat Bola, a retired superintendent of police.
What however worries the residents of the state is the manner the task force has been going about arresting motorcycle riders. Some residents complained to the magazine that the policemen attached to the task force have turned the task of apprehending motorcyclists to a do or die affair.  It’s unclear if the state government has been inundated with the dangerous approach used by the policemen to ‘capture’ their prey, but residents witness, on the daily basis,  a fierce battle between the task force and motorcycle riders, which sometimes result in fatality.
For instance, Lagosians have suddenly got use to policemen chasing okada riders with their pick up vans on the highway. Just recently along the Lagos/ Abeokuta  expressway, not far from from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, a motor accident occurred when policemen attached to the task force  tried to impound a  motorcycle.
Though no life lost the matter almost ended up in a fracas when sympathetic Nigerian gathered with the intension to lynch the policemen, who they blamed for the incident.  The policemen escaped before they were torched. The situation remain the same across the state.
When they are not chasing motorcyclists with their pock up vans, they are on the highway armed with sticks and other dangerous weapons trying to hack down any okada riders on sight. In doing this, the policemen have maimed some motorcyclists in the quest to rid Lagos of okada according to witnesses in the state who spoke with the magazine.
According to worried residents, the policemen have now turned themselves to terror on the road. They need to be called to order, some Lagosians have warned.
Some motorcycle riders disclosed that their members are wounded daily by the menacing and gun throttling policemen. Mufutau Adio, informed the magazine that one of his relation is a victim of excessive force employed by the policemen to apprehend commercial motorcycles.
According to him, his brother now receiving treatment in the hospital ran into the task force last month on his way to the Island to drop a passenger. On citing him the policemen had warned him to stop, when he refused they started chasing him with their vehicle.
“They knocked him down around Ilupeju where they eventually apprehended him after knocking him into the gutter” he said.
The thinking is that policemen attached to the task force, are not properly trained on rule of engagement, considering the way they apply disproportionate force when trying to arrest okada riders.
Some also told the magazine that the policemen may be acting on directive of the state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni who recently stated that the police will apply full force to rein in commercial motorcyclists in the state wherever they are found.
That the state government has failed to addressed the matter despite complaints from residents may also be a pointer that it’s not worried over the allege highhandedness on the part of the task force, some Lagosians told the magazine.   The state commissioner of information, Steve Ayorinde failed to respond to the allegation. He did not respond to telephone calls made as well as text messages sent to his line.