Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has announced a total ban of Okada operations in some local governments in the state effective June 1st 2022.
The affected local governments are Ikeja, Surulere, Apapa, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, Isale Eko and Eti Osa local governments.
The governor gave this directive today while speaking with all Divisional Police Officers and Area Commanders across the State today at the Lagos House, Ikeja.
According to him, “This is the phased banning that we are going to be embarking on so that others will know that in a short while it is either they get out or look for something else to do,” Sanwo-Olu said at the meeting.
This directive is coming almost a week after a sound engineer was lynched and burnt to death by Okada operators and area boys within the Lekki Phase 1 axis over N100. Two others who were critically injured are currently being treated of their injuries in an undisclosed hospital.
The chairman of the Lekki Residents Association, Mr Yomi Idowu had accused the state government of not enforcing the ban on Okada in the State and leaving residents at the mercy of Okada operators who are mostly from the northern part of the country and who are always dangerously armed.
He had decried a situation where northern states from where the Okada operators come from, like Kaduna and Kano, banned the use of Okada and the respective state governments enforced the ban without paying lip service to it.