Recently,
Andrew Ibitoye, a Lagos-based journalist boarded a commercial motorcycle,
popularly known as okada at Second Rainbow, along the Lagos-Apapa expressway in
Lagos.
Ibitoye
said he planned to link-up Apapa on his way to attend an official assignment at
the Nigerian Port Authority, on that fateful Monday morning. But, it turned out
to be a black Monday for him.
“The okada
rider, a Hausa boy, who may not be up to 18 years old, was negotiating the
transport fare with him partially in pigin English and Hausa language. We
eventually settled for N300 and the journey begun”.
But, when
I noticed that the rider was reckless while driving, I warned him to be a bit
careful and along the line, threatened to drop if he refused to listen to me.
He (the rider) slowed down for sometime.
But, on
getting close to Mile 2, the rider, who was desperate to negotiate a bend
crashed with a trailer that was moving slowly and I was thrown off the bike.
I fell by
the road side and had severe injuries on my two eyes, with blood flowing
freely, though I did not know at that point in time whether or not the okadaman
sustained injuries or was even died.
“This was
the end of the journey as sympathetic persons came to my aid and eventually
rushed me to a private hospital in the area for urgent medical attention”, he
said.
Ibitoye is
lucky to have survived the okada accident. But, as Mrs Mary Nwosu, a nurse with
the National Orthopedic Hospital in Yaba, Lagos told our correspondent last
week, lots of people knocked down by reckless and restive okada riders in
various parts of Lagos have died.
Where they
are not killed by okada accidents, they may loss their legs or hands to the
accident, which she said is avoidable, if some okada riders learn to be
cautious while driving.
But,
Babatunde Johnson, chairman, Ile-epo unit of okada riders union at Oke-Odo,
Lagos confessed that some of the under-aged riders are reckless,
restive, inexperienced and impatient.
They want
to make more money at the shortest possible time, so they throw caution to the
winds and drive as if there is no tomorrow. He alleged that some of young,
inexperienced riders may not have valid riders’ cards issued by the Lagos state
government.
Abule
Egba is a popular bus-stop in Lagos. But, it is one place under-aged okada
riders, who are said to be either from Niger or the northern parts of the country
converge daily in search of passengers.
Total
filling station, Ekoro road junction and Balogun Street, close to the
secretariat of Oke-Odo local council development authority are some of the
points these riders wait in search of passengers.
Unconfirmed
report has it that a certain businessman of the northern stock, who sells wares
at the popular Kotangowa market in Abule Egba, brought these under-aged okada
riders from the northern parts of the country to Lagos, where he bought
cyclists for them to operate on agreed percentage bases.
Akpan
Etim, a rider at the bus-stop said that from Ekoro to Agbeleke area in Abule
Egba attract N100 from a passenger. But, “regrettably, some of these under-aged
and inexperienced okada riders are willing to collect N50 for the same
journey”.
Observations
further revealed that Oko –Oba, Pen Cinema, Oshiodi bus-stop, Iyana Ipaja,
Ikeja bus-stop, Agege, Igando, Ikotun, Obalende, Orile Iganmu, Igando, Mile 12,
Mile 2, and Igando are some of the areas where these riders are often
seen.
At the
Agege Local government secretariat, one Joseph Bankole, a staff of the
secretariat told our correspondent on Wednesday that N1, 300 is collected from
okada riders, who wish to be issued with the riders’ cards in addition with one
passport photograph.
With this,
a form will be issued to the person to fill and return to the secretariat with
a photocopy of his birthday certificate or age declarations before it could be
processed, where the card will eventually be issued.
No comments:
Post a Comment