Hundreds of commercial motorcycle operators in the Ifako/Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State have condemned the forcible purchase of identification stickers recently imposed upon them by the Chairman of the council, Hon. Oloruntoba Oke.
The commercial motorcycle operators under the aegis of the All Nigeria Auto-bike Commercial Owners, criticised the council boss for imposing the sticker on them.
They described Oke’s action as illegal.
Our correspondent gathered that the council officials had been impounding motorcycles found without the identification sticker, since the enforcement of the order.
The group said N500 was required to obtain the identification sticker.
Speaking to our correspondent, ANACOWA Chairman, Yusuf Oladimeji, said no fewer than 50 motorcycles had been impounded since the enforcement order began two weeks ago.
Oladimeji added that about six of the impounded motorcycles had, however, been released after the payment of N7,000 fine for each of them.
He alleged that they were not issued any receipt for the fine paid into the local government account.
“At present, over 50 bikes have been impounded and just about six have only been released with a ransom of #7000 paid on each, to the local government account with no official receipt,” the chairman told our correspondent.
In addition to the imposition of the sticker, the ANACOWA chairman added that the local government boss had also been forcing the bike operators to pay other illegal bills.
Oladimeji expressed regret that motorcycle operators in the area were also being forced to purchase, on a daily basis, tickets from the council officials before plying the roads.
“Apart from this sticker, which is sold at the rate of N500, motorcycle tickets carrying the name of the Ifako Ijaye Local Government are also issued to bike riders on a daily basis. This is exploitation,” he added
A bike operator, who simply identified himself as Hakeem, also said, “The local government chairman (Oke) has been very mean; everything about him is exploitative.
“There are a lot of other monies, which we pay every day, apart from this sticker purchase he just imposed on us.”
Reacting to the development, the Civil Liberties Organisation said such act was not within the purview of the local government, as contained in the country’s 1999 constitution as amended.
The CLO Chairman, Kehinde Bakare, stated that the measure contradicted the existing Lagos State of Nigeria Official Gazette Extraordinary Volume 43 Law number 4(3).
Bakare noted that CLO and ANACOWA had jointly written several letters to the council boss over the issue, but he did not reply the correspondence.
He said, “Several letters
