The joint enforcement taskteam maintained its reinvigorated attempt to clear the nation’s capital city of Abuja of the threat presented by commercial motorcycle riders, often known as Okada riders, by executing operations in the notorious hotspots of Durumi I and Durumi II in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
The Lugbe FHA, Piwoyi Junction near Shoprite Mall, the Lokogoma junction, and the well-known Lugbe Police signboard on Airport Road, all of which are hotspots for attacks on police enforcement, were also the targets of raids by AMAC.
During the raid, it was seen that the team, which included representatives from the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), along with police, military, and paramilitary operatives providing watertight security cover, not only seized a large number of motorcycles but also detained some recalcitrant operators for allegedly violating traffic laws and posing environmental and security threats to people’s lives and property.
The raid came just one month after one of the newly hired male officers of the DRTS, who was described as being “between 25 and 30 years old,” was brutally murdered by the okada. The raid aims to rid the city of increasing nuisances caused by the operations of commercial motorcyclists within the areas visited and other prohibited areas of the country’s capital city.
The Secretary, FCTA Transportation Secretariat, Abdullahi Adamu Candido while flagging off the exercise, on Thursday in a field opposite Living Faith Church, in Durumi II said it is going to be a continuous initiative, untill the prohibited motorcycles are completely flushed out, so that the city can become what all will be proud of.
Candido, however, reiterated that any lawless citizen wishing to test the will of the government will not be tolerated.
According to him: “The FCTA will now be more determined than before, because of the security and maintenance of the plan of the city, so we can have a good city that all Nigerians will be proud of.
“This is a developing city that is guided by planned policies of the government, which we must not allow any lawless person to set backward.
“On behalf of the FCTA , let me re-echo that we will never watch people, who do not have respect for the law to overhaul the good citizens who want things going in a decent manner”, he stressed
Also speaking, DRTS Director, Abdullateef Bello disclosed that the confiscation and crushing of the about two hundred motorcycles were to serve as serious deterrence to others especially the recalcitrant operators.
He explained that the exercise was in line with a policy that prohibited their operation within the nation’s capital city since 2006.
Similarly, Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Comrade Ikharo Attah, who led the raid, hinted that the issue of Okada is more of a security threat than commercial or transportation problems in the Territory.
He recalled that just three weeks ago around the same area, one of its personnel from DRTS was stabbed and killed by the Okada riders, adding that “one of us was badly injured in the neck, but thank God he is stable while recuperating”.
His words, “Durumi that is very notorious for their activities is prohibited for them to be operating here, and the Minister is extremely grateful to all agencies involved in the exercise.
“We are assuring that we keep putting our best to ensure that this city is very safe”.
Other top officials who witnessed the flagging off of the exercise include Heads and representatives of the various security and paramilitary agencies operating in the FCT.
