New Telegraph

Lagos: Police, riders clash as task force impounds bikes

 

Policemen and motorcyclists clashed yesterday at the Second Rainbow in Amuwo Odofin Local Council Development Area of Lagos State. Trouble started when the operatives attached to the Lagos Task Force went to impound motorcycles in the area.

 

The motorcyclists resisted the operatives from taking away their bikes, which led to a clash between the policemen and the riders. The irate motorcyclists made bonfires on the expressway, leading to a total breakdown of law and order around Festac, Amuwo Odofin, which later escalated to Coker and the Mile 2 axis of Apapa- Oshodi Expressway, causing gridlock.

 

A witness, Ayodele Sam, said when the task force officials arrived to arrest and impound motorcycles, the riders confronted them, which degenerated into a serious crisis in the area. A commercial motorcyclist, Abass Yakubu, said the govern-ment was insensitive.

 

 

He said: “How would they be impounding motorcycles after the COVID-19 lockdown and the current economic hardship in the country? What did the commercial motorcyclists do? Do they want us to steal? We are human beings and we have families we will care for. Government can’t ban motorcycles without providing alternatives for us.

 

“Like many motorcycle riders, I have a family, I have parents I cater for, I have bills to pay. Do you think I love risking my life riding motorcycles on a daily basis on the highway? That is why I am doing it and some people are coming to harass us.” A commuter, Lukmon Jerry, wondered how the people would move without motorcycles.

 

He said: “The roads are terrible, where the roads are good; trailers and truck drivers have taken over. F Alakija to Mile 2 has become a huge trailer park. Although some bike operators have no regard for traffic rules, the government should regulate operators not impound motorcycles. Fix the roads; make them motorable and motorcycles would cease from the road.”

 

But the Head, Public Affairs Unit of the task force, Mr. Adebayo Taofiq, said in a statement that the operatives of the agency reacted based on a series of complaints from the public about the activities of the motorcycle riders using their bikes to rob people of their valuables and plying restricted routes.

 

He said after impounding about 74 motorcycles caught plying oneway and those operating on highway, riders mobilised and attacked officers of the task force.

 

He said: “They damaged two of our vehicles with one of our trucks which is beyond repair.” According to Taofiq, a paramilitary officer attached to the agency, Ganiyu Mustspha, was also attacked and wounded with a broken bottle and a cutlass because he mistakenly ran into the mob.

 

He said: “Since the #EndSARS protest, motorists, including Okada riders, operate with impunity thereby causing serious gridlock across the state.

 

“We had a stakeholders’ meeting with the leaders of the motorcycle operators and they made us understand that all those flagrantly disobeying the laws are not responsible to any association in the state. “We must all join hands to salvage the state from the hands of the notorious criminals who use motorcycles to perpetuate evil.”

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