Secretary-General of Lagos State Arewa Community (LASACOMM), Alhaji Musa Saleh disclosed this in a statement.
The Lagos Arewa Community has called on the security agencies to identify and arrest criminal elements masquerading as commercial motorcyclists, popularly called Okada riders.
Secretary-General of Lagos State Arewa Community (LASACOMM), Alhaji Musa Saleh disclosed this in a statement.
This comes a few days after the Lagos State Government declared a total ban on Okada riding in six local government areas of the state as a measure to curb insecurity.
According to the statement, the Arewa community expressed support for all measures taken by the Lagos Government in its efforts geared toward protecting Lagos residents.
Saleh added that criminal elements who are mostly foreigners from Niger Republic, Chad, Cameroon and other neighbouring countries have infiltrated the ranks of genuine riders and thereby perpetrating all forms of crime in the state.
The statement read, “The restriction of Commercial Motorcycle (Okada) operators in some Local Governments in Lagos State is not a new law. It has been in existence for over ten years. We resolved today unanimously that all our members must comply with the provisions of the laws of Lagos State. We are law-abiding and we will always continue to intimate all our members to continue to be law-abiding and operate only within the ambits of the law.
“We support all measures taken by the Lagos State Government in its efforts towards protecting the lives and property of all Lagosians. We condemn in totality the activities of all criminal elements who are mostly foreigners from Niger Republic, Chad, Cameroon and other neighbouring countries who have infiltrated the ranks of those genuine riders and thereby perpetrating all forms of crime in Lagos state and are constituting serious threats to the lives and property of Lagosians.
“We are calling on the Security Agencies to identify and arrest all those criminal elements masquerading as Okada riders. We also task the Nigeria Immigration Service to step up its actions along the borderline in checking the influx of those foreign elements coming into the country without genuine intention.”
It continued, “We are calling on all well-meaning Arewa Community members to comply with our common resolve and avoid the local governments of Apapa, Surulere, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, Etiosa and Ikeja.
“We will work with the Lagos State Government and the Association of Arewa Okada Riders towards the implementation of extant rules and documentation of all riders in all local governments of Lagos State. We must have adequate data on everyone. We call on the Lagos State Government to be vigilant and take proper punitive measures on bad eggs within the security agencies.”
It further called on the state government to support its programmes which include registration, data generation and compliance monitoring.