Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde has said that his administration would not impose a ban on commercial motorcycle riders popularly known as Okada in the state.
The governor made this known during his third-anniversary media chat at the BCOS Television house in Ibadan on Saturday.
Fielding questions about the ban of okadas in Lagos state and whether Oyo State would follow suit, Governor Makinde noted that the state government cannot ban all okada riders because they are legitimate riders among them.
He noted that Okada is a legitimate business that fills a need in the state and serves as a means of livelihood to a lot of families but rather his administration would regulate okada riders in the state.
He said, “We have no intention of banning Okada in Oyo state. We will regulate them, we will identify them and the criminals will be dealt with.
I have seen people with their cars jump okada to go to the bank. They are serving a purpose.
“We will regulate, identify and deal with the criminal among them but we won’t just ban Okada because another state bans them. They’re filling a vacuum and you don’t take legitimate people out of business. If we ban them, what next?”
“When we identify them: who, what, where, we let the people know that there may be criminal elements. If we wholesale send them out, we will have more criminal issues. They could become armed robbers.
“We go to some advanced countries and we see them paying people to keep the crime rate low. We have to create a safety net before we begin to put people out of business”, he concluded.