Commercial motorcyclists (okada riders) protests against new Lagos State Traffic Law

Commercial motorcycle operators popularly called ‘Okada riders’, once again yesterday stormed different parts of Lagos metropolis in protest against restriction placed on their operations by the new traffic law enacted in July.

The Okada riders numbering hundreds stormed major highways, such as Lagos Abeokuta Expressway, Agege, Ajegunle, Apapa, and Lagos Island areas, urging government to revert the restriction order on their operations.

Despite the on going fuel scarcity in the city, the operators chanting anti-government slogans, took over the roads causing traffic gridlock


It took combined team of Rapid Response Squad, RRS of the Nigeria police to quell the situation and restored normalcy.

Part of the new law restricts the operations of Okada on 475 roads across the state.
 
An official of the state Ministry of Transportation confirmed the protest, saying the situation was immediately put under check with no arrest made as the protesting Okada riders retreated accordingly.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, has disclosed that the government has added 15,000 road signs in addition to the existing 10,000.

Opeifa said the massive installation of the signs would enable road-users to be conversant with the signs and their significance, adding that it would also assist road-users to know the restricted routes for motorcycles and tricycles, designated bus-stops, among others.

He, however, warned recalcitrant Okada riders and tri-cyclists in their own interest, to desist from plying the restricted 475 routes as anyone found violating the law will be appropriately sanctioned.