The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has crushed over 1,700 impounded motorcycles in line with its ban on motorcycle operations within the city center.
The motorbikes were destroyed at the office of the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), Wuye district of Abuja.
The Mandate Secretary, FCT transportation Secretariat, Usman Yahaya, who presided over the event, pointed to what he described as the “excesses and hostility” of most Okada riders in the area, saying it was becoming “overwhelming”, and pledging that the FCTA had what it takes to tackle them head-on.
The Director, Directorate of Road Traffic Services ,Dr Abdulateef Bello said crushing of the motorbikes would serve as a deterrent to other “stubborn Okada riders”.
The motorcycles Dr Bello insisted, were impounded from those who operated them in unauthorised areas.
Criminal activities
The FCT commissioner of police, Sunday Babaji, who was represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Hauwa Ibrahim, accused some of the okada riders of soiling their hands by allowing themselves to be used to carry out criminal activities in the territory.
“They use them in snatching of bags, bank robberies, attacks on residential areas and they were becoming security threat to the security of FCT,” CP Babaji said.
“On that note, there was outcry that led to the banning of motorcycles within the city in 2006 by the FCT Administration. Since then, we have been working together in impounding Okada.”
On why the DRTS do not prosecute offending Okada riders, the senior special assistant to the FCT minister on monitoring, inspection And Enforcement, Comrade Ikharo Attah, said it was enough pain that an offending motor-cyclist had his N300,000-worth Okada impounded.
Warning
Comrade Attah, however, advised those who hire out their motorbikes to the Okada-riders to discontinue, warning that any rider caught violating the rules would have his motorcycle crushed .
The last mass destruction of motorcycles in Abuja took place in December, 2021, in line with the FCT Administration’s ban on the operations of motor-cyclists within the city centre in 2006.
Reporting by Remi Johnson; Editing by Omotola Oguneye and Tony Okerafor