State orders Okada to vacate restricted routes within 21 days

THE Lagos State government last week, told commercial motorcyclists, popularly called Okada-riders in the state that the period of grace was over and now is the time to return to strict implementation of Road Traffic Law 2012 and restriction on all major routes.
 
To this end, the government had given a 21-ultimatum to Okada-riders to vacate all 475 restricted routes in Lagos metropolis, or face the full wrath of the law.
 
The development is a sharp contradiction to popular expectation among the Okada-riders that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led government would relax the traffic rules in line with his policy to make “life easier and happier” for Lagosians.
 
But the state government, at a meeting with Okada unions in Alausa, Lagos last week ordered the return to status quo.
 
Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Tunji Bello, who chaired the meeting, told reporters that government had decided to give the riders 21-day ultimatum for the unions to sensitise their members to vacate the restricted routes before enforcement would begin.