The Obi of Owa Kingdom, Dr. Emmanuel Efeizomor II (JP) OON has stated that the recent ban on Okada operations in Ika land by the State Government is untimely.
The monarch made this statement last week Friday in his palace while paying host to delegates from the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ika correspondence chapel.
He pointed out that the ban which the State Government has enforced with the intention of reducing crime rate, may have a negative result if care is not taken since many who have been rendered jobless, may go into crime. He stated that since there are no good network of roads in Ika land, the ban ought to have been suspended.
He further noted that the option of tricycles, popularly known as Keke na pep, is not better that the Okada since majority of the people in Ika land are farmers and that they need the motorcycles to carryout their business. He reaffirmed that the ban should not be the State Government’s priority but rather, the State Government should re-prioritize and provide a better road network, industrialization and other essential facilities that could better the lives of the people.
He emphasized that though security is important but the government could tackle it better without the ban on Okada operations.
According to the monarch, “majority of the criminals in police records are not Okada riders”. I don’t rule out the fact that Okada riders can constitute nuisance yes they do. But even in the parliament, the politicians fight. The lawyers even fight in court. So where lies the difference? So if the government say the ban is based on security risk, before the ban, the government should have called the people who are involved in the trade and warn them that if certain crime does not stop, within a specified period of time, their operations will be banned. So the people will go back and ensure that the fight against crime is intensified. Even if they say everybody should be using cars, there is no assurance that from now till December there will not be cases of armed robbery or kidnapping. Crime has been there right from the beginning of the earth. We the people of Ika, are not criminally inclined and crime is not peculiar to us.
The monarch further described the ban on Okada operations as a deliberate punishment to the downtrodden and tactical sabotage to the Federal Government’s interest, especially during the elections period, as the electorate would find it very cumbersome to go the polling units to exercise their franchise.
He urged the State Government and other relevant authorities to look into the current ban on Okada in Ika land and stipulate the areas where the Okada riders are free to operate with the two local government areas to prevent the people from being misled. The monarch also expressed disapproval with the manner which the enforcement agents impounded motorcycles from their warehouses and also those parked in the banks and other offices, adding that since the motorcycles were not in use, they ought not to have been impounded.
Source: Ika Weekly
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