•PDP is politicising restriction order
The lagos State Road Traffic Law 2012 did not ban commercial motorcycle operations, the All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday.
The law only restricted their operations, APC chairman Otunba Oladele Ajomale told reporters in his office.
With him were the Vice Chairman (West District), Chief Funso Ologunde, the Secretary, Prince Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, the Publicity Secretary, Comrade Joe Igbokwe, his deputy, Abiodun Salami, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly. Hon. Bola Badmus-Olujobi, the Legal Adviser, Mr. Demola Sodiq and the women leader, Mrs. Kemi Nelson.
Unlike the ban on their activities in eight states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lagos only restricted their activities on some roads, following public complaints, he said, adding: “Nobody has banned Okada operators. The government has only restricted the use of Okada in less than 25 per cent of the roads. Lagos has not banned the use of Okada. It has only restricted the use of okada in 475 out of 10,000 roads. The PDP has only turned it into a political issue without considering the life and wellbeing of the people”.
Ajomale reiterated the party’s support for the law, which has restored relative sanity on the roads, saying the APC cannot be aloof to the carnage and threats to life.
Lamenting the twisting of facts surrounding the law by PDP, Ajomale said the APC had set up a committee headed by Ologunde to study the law and its implementation. He said many Lagosians heaved a sigh of relief when the law came into being.
Ajomale noted that 80 percent of the riders were foreigners and illiterates who lacked knowledge of Lagos and cannot recognise traffic signs.
Ologunde said the law became necessary because the commercial use of motorcycles for public transportation was associated with high accident rate. He said many riders and passengers sustained injuries, permanent disabilities and, in some cases, death.
Ologunde said: Besides avoidable deaths, there were insecurity accentuated by armed robbery, assassinations and robbery of innocent citizens, especially ladies who were on lawful pursuit of their daily bread. Prior to the signing of the law in August 2012, we used to have in state hospitals alone an average of 16 okada-related deaths monthly and 646 okada accident-related injuries.”
The law, he said, had reduced the havoc, adding that, since March, the state has only recorded less than two deaths monthly and less than 100 injuries. He said the roads where commercial cyclists’ operations were restricted were mostly dual carriage others and roads with adequate public transportation.
Ologunde added: “Over the two-year period of the road traffic law operation, this amounts to over 150 lives saved and more than 3,300 personal injuries. The okada ward in the orthopedic hospital has disappeared.”
Defending the restriction, he said: “Apart from the Federal Capital Territory, which totally banned the operation of okada, 1 states have followed suit. They are Enugu, Anambra, Delta, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Edo, and Katsina. Eight of these 14 states and the FCT are PDP-controlled.”
Igbokwe fired salvos at the PDP, saying that its chieftains were engaged in myopic and uninformed attacks on the Fashola Administration.
He said: “We know their objective, which is to bring the okada issue to the campaigns’ front burner, ahead of 2015 elections, hoping that, with such cheap blackmail, voters could be deceived into seeing them as having altruistic intentions.”
Igbokwe alleged that PDP leaders were inciting okada riders to disobey the traffic laws, recalling that it had achieved this through the “Sure-P” inducement.
Reiterating the APC’s support for the law, he said its reversal would lead to the reversal of its gains in the last two years.
He added: “We call on all okada operators to comply with all the gtraffic rules and regulations, even in the remote parts of the state.”
