Commercial motorcycle riders, popularly called
‘Okada’, yesterday, Wednesday May 6, 2015, blocked the Lekki/Ikoyi link bridge
on Admiralty Way with cutlasses and bandannas.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
reports that the riders staged the protest because they were unhappy that
residents didn’t want them in the area anymore.
NAN said:
The Lagos State Police Command said on Wednesday
that it had quelled the protest by commercial motorcyclists, otherwise called
“Okada riders’’ at Lekki Phase I in Lagos.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kenneth
Nwosu, told NAN that the force on getting the report deployed its men
to quell the demonstration.
Nwosu said that normalcy had returned to the area
and that people were now safe to go about their businesses.
NAN reports that the demonstration which began
around 2 p.m. had paralysed commercial activities at the area.
The demonstration started when the residents of
the area said they no longer needed the services of the commercial
motorcyclists.
According to an eyewitness, the angry Okada
riders took to the streets, barricading the Lekki/Ikoyi bridge.
He said that they wielded machetes and other
dangerous weapons, thereby preventing vehicular movement into and out of the
area.
There are also reports that gunshots were heard
but it was not clear if it was from the security officials or the Okada riders.
Nwosu, who confirmed the incident, added that
policemen had put the situation under control.
According to him, it’s a demonstration by Okada
men who decided to take the law into their hands.
“There is a demonstration by some members of
the Okada riders group after the Lekki Residents Association said they don’t
want Okada to operate in their neighbourhood.
The association said they only
want tricycles to operate there as using commercial motorcycles encouraged
criminality there.
The Okada riders then decided to breach the
peace of the neighbourhood and our men had to pick them up. People should learn
to be lawful; you can’t compel a particular set of people to tow a particular
line which they don’t like.
They have said they don’t want Okada in their
neighbourhood, then they should go to another neighbourhood where Okada is
accepted.’’ Nwosu said.
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