Menace, criminality and impunity of Okada Riders in Lagos: A ticking time bomb
LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT MUST ENFORCE THE LICENSING AND BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION OF ALL OKADA AND KEKE RIDERS IN LAGOS STATE .
USE THE PROPOSED LASIEC 400 WARDS DELINEATION AND 1,200 CONTROL CENTERS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
We do not need any soothsayer to enlighten us that the infiltration of Lagos state by ISIS, Bandits, and Terrorists, can easily be accomplished using this sea of hundreds of thousands of UNDOCUMENTED okada RIDERS all over Lagos state.
No other incident highlighted the dangers, this undocumented okada orders posed to lives and security in Lagos state, than the carnage, looting, evil and destruction they visited upon Lagos state, hiding under the Endsars protest.
Under the rudderless security arrangements we have in place in Nigeria today ,the frontiers of BH, ISIS, terrorist herdsmen, kidnappers and Bandits have expanded and spiralled out of control over the last 5years .
Most Lagosians are not aware of the menace that most of these okada riders are causing in Lagos. Some of you are unaware that most of these guys, who move about in numberless okadas, without any home address and means of identification may actually be the forerunners of BH and ISIS from outside Nigeria. Some of these okada hide dangerous weapons under the clothes .
HOW CAN LAGOS STATE CHECKMATE THIS MENACE ?
It is estimated that Lagos state is home to over 120,000 Okada RIDERS and tens of thousands of Keke , mostly undocumented without any home addresses. What do we do?
1. Using the Lasiec 400 wards arrangement, create 1,200 okada and Keke control data collection points manned by 3,600 properly documented uniformed/ trained enforcement agents .
2. Set up Biometric registration centres in each of these 400 Lasiec wards/1200 okada /keke control centres. ( we can involve 4 selected banks to participate here and GLO because we must also give them sim cards)
3. Biometrically capture all these 120,000 okada riders and Keke riders and farm them out , 100 licenced riders under a control centre/team. One off registration of N2500 with ID cards will net in N300million, ( which will cover the cost of the exercise and help to manage the centers since it is renewable annually.
4. Introduce flat fee of just N200 per okada per day, which is deducted from their pre-registered GLO sim cards, already registered in the system and in which they can load a prepaid N200 voucher to cover their daily rates. ( this arrangement will guarantee over N15billion annual revenue that are not stolen. This is properly captured into Lagos state treasury ) .
5. The properly trained and uniformed Okada/ Enforcement agents ( 3,600, across the 1,200 monitoring centers in the 400 LASIEC delineated wards ) armed with the complete biometrics data of all licensed Okada, Keke and dispatch bike owners and riders in Lagos can now enforce and ensure no illegal operator rides within Lagos state .
To enhance enforcement and ensure no breaches, the agents are empowered to confiscate any undocumented, unregistered and unlicensed okada or dispatch bike or keke in Lagos state . Any captured and proven case attracts N20,000 bonus to the enforcement agents. This way, it will not be easy for defaulters to bribe them .
The recurrent expenditure and cost overhead to maintain and equip this 3,600 enforcement agents across the 1200 centres in Lagos state is just about N3.2billion .
Spending N3.2billion annually to generate and earn over N15billion into the coffers of Lagos state , while guaranteeing the safety and security of our great city is a very worthy expense.
Eko Oni Baje oooo
Dr Nnaemeka Onyeka Obiaraeri, FICA
NB: Kindly note that other states can replicate this scheme too. We are ready and willing to help in this concept designing, structuring, funding and execution through a robust PPP architecture.Let’s fix our land .
