Commercial motorcycle operators protest over LASG ban
A large number of commercial motorcycle operators on Friday took to the street of Lagos to express their grievances over the recent decision of the Lagos State Government to restrict their operations in some Local Government Areas, bridges, and highways in the state.
The operators which include majorly Gokada and MAXOkada staged a peaceful protest from Oregun road to the State House of Assembly in Ikeja.
While bearing various placards, the protesters appealed to the state government to regulate their services and not restrict them from operating.
They lamented that the business is their only means of survival.
The peaceful protests come after managements of Gokada and Max NG ride-hailing services made an appeal to the state government to rescind the decision, stating that their operations were compliant with the 2012 traffic law and the social impact made by the ride services in terms of job creations.
Mr Tayo Bamidiro, Chief Executive Officer, MAXOkada, stated that the company has created 2,200 direct jobs for their drivers and full-time staff and 73,000 indirect jobs.
One of the representative of the protesters, Steve Orajiakwu of 1st- ride said they were not consulted before the ban was announced by the state government.
“We are not happy with the way the ban was done. We are running a democratic government and when decisions that concern the lives of people are to be made by the government, the people should be consulted. Whatever the government did is not good for us. We We were never invited for debate. We know the government is concerned about the security and lives of people as well as the influx of some people from a certain region of the country.
But we are professionals. Our bikes have tracking devices and camera. We went for blood and eye test. We went for intensive training. The government should call us and see the possibility of regulating us,” he lamented
Also lamenting the effects the ban will have on their livelihood, Uche Ekemiri of Gokada said: ” We pay tax to the government and we are ready to have a license. Government just woke up one day and ban us and I don’t see reasons they should ban us. This is what we do for a living.”
