- As FCTA Task Force raids notorious spots
- Many count losses; seek palliatives
BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS – In what is commonly referred to as ‘Bad Market’ in local parlance, commercial motorcyclists, popularly called ‘Okada’ riders, and small business owners on Thursday suffered huge losses in Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) raided some alleged notorious hotspots in the suburbs of the nation’s capital city.
Taking their operations to sanitize the capital city of the biting Okada’s menace, FCTA joint enforcement Task Force team stormed Durumi I and Durumi II villages located within the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to fish out the delinquent motorcyclists cum criminal elements said to be residing in these areas.
An eyewitness account said Thursday’s operation was actually instigated by some errant ‘Okada’ riders who confronted the Task Force team that had initially impounded their bikes along Area 3 junction and the point leading into the Winners Highway where the Living Faith Church, Durumi, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) and the Catholic Secretariat are located.
However, amid tight security coverage from the Police, Military, and Paramilitary operatives, the Task Force returned reinforced to confiscate more motorcycles and also apprehend many of the recalcitrant ‘Okada’ operators accused of contravening existing traffic rules within the city.
According to the Task Force officials, drawn from the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) and Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), the cyclists were arrested for allegedly constituting themselves into environmental and security threats to lives and property within the capital city.
Our correspondent reports that after the bulldozers brought down all illegal structures and crushed the seized motorcycles, the officials explained that the raided areas have become notorious for harbouring some criminals parading themselves as ‘Okada’ riders who are in the habit of attacking and injuring enforcement officers on their legitimate duties.
It was indeed a sorry sight for the small business operators within the vicinity opposite the Living Faith Church premises as they scampered to save some of their wares as bulldozers left behind a huge heap of rubbles after the demolition exercise
It was also gathered that the raid aims at riding the city of increasing nuisance from commercial motorcyclists within the areas visited and other prohibited areas of the nation’s capital city, which include the ever-busy Lokogoma roundabout, Lugbe FHA, Piwoyi Junction near Shoprite mall, and the popular Lugbe Police signboard, along the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Road.
But some of the small business owners, who spoke with Forefront, lamented that the Task Force went haywire going after the ‘Okada’ riders as it delivered punishment for their perceived crimes on everyone and everything in sight without an exception.
They maintained that it was wrong for innocent citizens who are doing legitimate business to always be made to suffer for the ‘sins’ of the ‘Okada’ riders whenever they misbehave and run foul of the law.
Clearly distraught for losing the source of daily livelihood, the business operators call on the FCT Minister, organisations, and well-meaning individuals to come to their aid in order to cushion the hardship which the sudden destruction of their wares has inflicted on them and their families.
The latest operation is coming barely one month after one of the newly recruited male officers of the DRTS was brutally murdered when a group of protesting ‘Okada’ operators suddenly attacked the team that had just carried out a raid at some infamous spots within the city.
This is as some officials narrowly escaped death after being hounded by hoodlums who brandished stones, cutlasses, and other dangerous weapons in the Kuchingoro community.
In the said attack, five officers of the Taskforce were just lucky to have escaped with various degrees of injury as the motorcyclists went on the rampage.
One of the officers told Forefront that the FCTA authorities had to react promptly after noticing that the Okada menace was gradually creeping back into the city despite the restrictions imposed on their operations.
