Operators of commercial motorbikes, popularly known as ‘Okada,’ are levying their mob factor wantonly on communities across the country – a major reason they’ve been banned from select council areas in Lagos by the state government with effect from this Wednesday, 1st June. They reportedly stormed a housing estate in Abuja last Sunday and destroyed property in a revenge attack over the death of their colleague in an accident.
According to online news site, the ICIR, Okada riders laid a siege on Same Global Estate in Lokogoma area of the federal capital city and were barely restrained from setting houses ablaze in the estate. The unrest was said to have erupted when a motorist killed an Okada rider and one other person in an accident around the area and thereafter ran into the estate for safety. “The person that killed the people ran into Same Global. Okada people went to the estate to look for him and couldn’t find him, so they started burning things,” the news site quoted an eyewitness saying. It also cited the estate chairman, Ashinze Onero, saying: “The motorist ran into the estate and the bike riders were after him. But somehow, they were stopped by the security men and that aggravated the situation. In their usual way, they took the law into their own hands, lit bonfires and were throwing pebbles on houses.” According to the estate official, the situation would have gone out of hand but for swift intervention by security operatives. “The bonfires torched a part of the security house, but no house was really burnt. There were attempts, but thank God, we had to reach out to relevant security authorities and the police came to our rescue. We also enjoyed the goodwill of some of our very high-ranking military personnel (estate residents). They called for military backup and they were able to tame the situation,” he was reported saying.
Some two weeks earlier, commercial motorbike operators attacked a market at the Dei-Dei area of Abuja, burning down shops in a rampage said to have resulted in no fewer than four deaths. Trouble had erupted had after a motorcyclist conveying a female passenger skidded and overturned on the road, resulting in the passenger’s death. A mob had burnt down the motorcycle, prompting reprisal attack by Okada riders. In Lekki, Lagos State, a mob action by commercial motorcyclists resulted in the lynching of a sound engineer, Sunday David Imoh, on 12th May and near death of two colleagues of the victim.
Okada riders have traction in the society because of the rickety state of public transportation system. Society must find a way of keeping them in check.