Abuja Shut Down As Okada Riders And Police Clash

Thousands of commercial motorcyclists popularly called Okada riders and the police in the Abuja suburb of Jikwoyi  had a serious yesterday. It would have turned bloody but not for the timely intervention of  a team of mobile policemen dispatched from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command.
Reports said the crisis lasted for hours. The protesting riders set bonfires at strategic junctions leading to Jikwoyi…they also barricaded the road from Jikwoyi, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Junction and around the Karu Market area, preventing human and vehicular movement.
It was gathered that the riot, which nearly turned into a religious war, started when policemen started arresting Okada riders over their refusal to pay a levy allegedly introduced by a group, Centre for Development and Empowerment of Commercial Motorcyclists in the area.

According to eyewitnesses, the incident, which started at about 9:00a.m., took a new dimension after the police began to seize the motorcycles of those that refused to pay the N9,500 levy. The said amount was meant for registration, identity card, reflective jackets and stickers for all Okada operators.
Angered by the attitude of the police, some of the Okada riders whose motorcycles were seized reported the matter to their colleagues, who within minutes gathered in their thousands to protest against the new levy. The police had to call for re-enforcement and within minutes, truck loads of mobile policemen were deployed to bring the situation under control.
It took about three hours for the police to disperse the irate mob, who refused the leave despite of the tear gas and gunshots from the policemen insisting the police release all the seized motorcycles.
As at the time the The Sun reporters got to the scene of the riot …which was about 1:00p.m, there were still bonfires, while a detachment of mobile policemen fired tear gas canisters into the air to disperse the crowd.
One of the Okada riders, Musa Sule, who claimed to have been a rider for over 25 years; operating in Port Harcourt and Bayelsa before relocating to Abuja nine years ago, said the Okada riders were against the new levy because it was not coming from a genuine source.
He said though, they did not have an official registered union; they would not want the police to force a group on them. He along other okada operators vowed to resist further extortion, but said they would only pay the new levy if the FCT minister made the pronouncement.
When contacted, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Doris England said the police were only there to provide security for those collecting the levy.
Also, when contacted, the Chief of Karu, Chief Emmanuel Kyauta Yepwi, was not available, but the palace Secretary, Samson Danjuma Shanyiwa, said he did not know what might have caused the riot, but that the palace had sent its watchdogs to get full details of what might have led to the riot and report to the palace.
Although no life was lost, several people were injured.