Okada Ban: ‘We Can’t Prevent People From Earning Legitimate Livelihood’

The Executive Assistant to Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde on Security, CP Sunday Odukoya (rtd), has disclosed that the influx of commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as ‘Okada’ riders was not only peculiar to the state, stating that no one should be displaced of his livelihood without first creating another source of livelihood for them.
Odukoya said such act would be tantamount to another insurgency in the state.
The governor’s aide, who gave the clarification during a chat with newsmen in his office on the heels of the hight rate of kidnapping in the state in recent time, noted that a lot of graduates were among the Okada riders, “so, if you know you don’t have anything for them to do, why displace them of their livelihood”.
He further said, “all we need to do is to call for identity management. We can zone them, give them code numbers and colours. Capture their identity, name, age, phone number, next of kin, telephone number, vehicle registration number and all other necessary things to zone them.
“Any man moving from Agodi down to Alakia for instance will be identified because of their colour and code number, it will be easy for them to be tracked, in case of any issue.
“For me personally, it is not by banning them that would solve the problem. In Oyo State, thank God for the method applied in progress, they are capturing their progress, they are doing it gradually and we are progressing on it.
“If we want to be sincere with ourselves, we can see that crime rates in Oyo State is the lowest in Nigeria compered to other states.
“The Governor has invested so much on security, just of recent, he had meetings with rank and files in the police, even his corporal, constable down to his commissioner, he had meetings with them.
“He asked them for their needs, and gave all the area commanders vehicles, and he is still planning to get more for the division.
“I served in Agodi 2014 and I know what was on place on ground then, a corporal cannot walk in the governor’s office anytime, but the governor’s office is open and he goes on patrol at night asking what they need, and see them.
“I would just advice that we appreciate the good governance that is in the place and politics should be aside. There are streets light around and security men on patrol can see far compared to when there was none and security men put their lives in danger by not seeing afar.
“The narrative has changed and people are praising the governor because they have not had it so smooth like this before.

“And they should set politics aside and think outside the box and set the track moving on what is called good governance,” Odukoya said.