Commercial motorcycle riders protest police extortion in Lagos

Commercial motorcyclists in Ifako-Ijaiye area of Lagos State on Friday cried out over alleged police extortion of operators in the area.
The commercial motorcycle operators said that policemen in the area were in the habit of coming to impound their motorcycles and arresting their members at the parks.
Spokesperson of the operators, Mr Yusuf Oladimeji, said: “Government should warn policemen against undue extortion of our members. The police raid us frequently in our parks; when they come, they ask for the chairman and if the chairman is not around, they carry a bike to Alausa for no just cause.”
Oladimeji, who is Ifako-Ijaiye branch chairman, All Nigerian Autobike Commercial Owners and Workers Association (ANACOWA), said that members of the union usually stayed off restricted areas and obeyed traffic rules.
In her reaction, Lagos State police spokesman, SP Oladapo Badmos, said that the police were empowered to apprehend commercial motorcycle riders who operated in restricted areas.
Badmos said that riders who could not identify the banned routes were usually arrested and handed over to the task force.
The police spokesperson advised operators to report any illegal arrest to either the state police command or the Area Commander in the locality.
“If a policeman goes to Okada (commercial motorcycle operators) park and arrests people, it is illegal, it is unlawful, and it is not the policy of the Lagos State Police.
“Those affected should go and report to the nearest Area Commander, if you cannot get the Area Commander, you should go to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State.
“Any policeman involved in an unlawful assignment would be brought to book,” she said.
She, however, warned commercial motorcycle operators to avoid prohibited routes to avoid being arrested.