Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has said his administration will go tough on any commercial motorcyclist who refuses to register with the state government.
He said the registration of commercial motorcycles and their riders became very important to prevent terrorists and other criminals disguising as okada riders from operating in the state.
Makinde, who spoke through his Executive Assistant on Administration and General Services, Idowu Ogedengbe, said this in Ibadan on Monday while featuring on the platform of the Oyo State Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.
He explained that the registration included the biometric data capturing for all operators including their names, phone numbers and addresses.
He said this would make it easy to track any okada used to commit crime anywhere in the state.
The governor’s aide said the Oyo State Road Transport Management Authority had been directed to apprehend whoever refused to register. He stressed that the first thing any commerical motorcyclist had to do before starting operation in the state was to get registered.
He said, “What we want to achieve with this is to reduce the security threat that those people riding motorcycles could pose to our state. We don’t want to do it in a way that we will infringe on the rights of any law-abiding okada rider that is just looking for his means of livelihood.
“Just like it happened in the United States of America recently where commercial motorcycles were crushed for violating the state laws, we shall also get there if it is established that any okada rider violates our state laws. Any criminal elements among them shall be purged.
“So, if you are coming to Oyo State and you don’t have our registration, it is an immediate pointer that the OYRTMA will spot you and arrest you because they would have known that you are not meant to be here. With that, before you even commit the crime, we have arrested you. We are going to pursue that aggressively.”
