Fresh findings by Shipping Position Daily have shown how security agents, including officers of the Nigeria Army (NA) and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) are taking advantage of the lockdown to extort commercial motorcyclists (okada riders) operating at the Mile 2 to Apapa axis of Lagos state.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the Lagos State Governor; Mr Babajide Sanwo Olu, had last month suspended the operation of Okada riders as he introduced a new framework for movement of persons and the re-opening of businesses in the state.
This directive has now become a money spinning opportunity for some security agents who are stationed on the Apapa axis to ensure free movement and safety of the construction workers at the site of the ongoing road reconstruction.
The embittered Okada riders lament how they pay a minimum of N1,000 daily to the officers on the road just to be able to ride their bicycles.
Giving a breakdown of how the extortion goes, an Okada rider; Usman Ali told our correspondent who was in an undercover investigation at Tin-Can Island last week that the security agents collect a minimum of N1,000 from each rider before the person can be allowed to go beyond the popular ‘Abuja bus stop’ to proceed Tin-Can Island.
He added that okada riders are forced to pay an additional N500 if they want to go beyond first gate to second gate, adding that as soon as you pay the money, they will mark your motorcycle and if you approach them and the mark is not there, they will ask you to go back or pay another money.
Opening up on the extortion, he alleged that the “Army officers collect the minimum of N1, 000 for okada to pass from Abuja to Tin-Can first gate and if you want to go from first gate to 2nd gate, you will pay N500. And from Sunrise they also collect N500 for Okada to move”.
Another rider who gave his name as, Yahaya added that the officers are taking advantage of the directive from the government to ensure the safety of workers at the construction site to be extorting Okada riders.
“They are taking advantage of the fact that the government directed them to ensure that Okada movements do not disrupt the road construction going on at the axis. If we want to follow the normal lane you pay a minimum of N500 and despite that they still don't allow us to pick passengers. Said they are facing a whole lot intimidation and harassment from them”
Yahaya however accused the Lagos state Controller of Works, Engineer; Kayode Poopola of working together with the security agents to extort Okada riders on the axis.
Also speaking, a truck owner who doesn't want his name in print concurred to the allegations saying that the officers at the bus stop do collect money even from truck drivers.
But reacting to this, Poopola in a telephone conversation with one of our correspondents last week in Lagos, denied the allegations saying that he was not the person who brought the security agents to the place where they alleged to be extorting.
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