Motorcyclists plying Oke Ira from Shonola Street junction opposite Excellence Hotel, Aguda, in the Ogba area of Lagos State, have lamented their alleged harassment and extortion by the police.
The motorcyclists said while waiting to pick passengers, the police usually emerge in minibusses and push them off their motorcycles which they take to their stations in Ogba and Agege, Punch reports.
According to them, while the police at Ogba collect N2,200 for every seized motorcycle, those at Agege insist on N5,200, while N200 is for access into the station.
The owner of a seized motorcycle, Abba Ibrahim, narrating his ordeals said, “the police just collected my motorcycle. They pushed me down from the motorcycle and took it away. I don’t know which police station they took it to. I just came out from the house; I have not even made a kobo.”
An executive member of the motorcyclists’ union at Aguda, Olugbenga Adams, said the problem had been on for a long time, adding that members of the union did not have anyone to stand up for them.
He explained that when the police began confiscating motorcyclists, they insisted on collecting N20,000 from each person they claimed ran foul of the law before the fine dropped to N10,200 and N5,200.
Adams added that the motorcyclists had been going through tough times, as many of them had been arrested by the police.
He said, “When they first came, they used to collect N20,000. Later, it became N10,200 and then N5,200. What work are we doing? What money are we making? The problem is that we don’t know anybody.
“These people will come in police uniform in the morning, afternoon and evening, show their ID cards and take away as many motorcycles as they can. They will tell us that they are taking the motorcycles to Alausa.
“After the commotion, we will go to Alausa and will not see the motorcycles there, or in Area ‘G’ in Ogba and Pen Cinema. We also go to other police stations, but we don’t often get to see the motorcycles. This happens daily.”
Another motorcyclist, Sunday Awolabi, said there was a designated place for all motorcyclists to park, adding that they usually complied with the rule.
A policeman in the area, however, told our correspondent that where the motorcyclists were congregating was not a park, adding that they were supposed to move at least two metres behind to avoid causing gridlock.
The policeman stated that “We arrest them because they leave their park to pick passengers on the road. They are not easy to control; they disturb the free flow of traffic.”
Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana, who invited the complaints to the command headquarters at Ikeja, said he was not aware of the issue, but has made a promise to investigate the allegations and sanction officers found wanting.
Source: Punch