Motorcycles dealers’ nation-wide to cast protest votes against okada ban

Motorcycles importers, dealers and traders in spare parts across the nation are going to cast protest votes during the elections to express dismay over the ban of okada business in some States in Nigeria, reports www.odogwublog.com.

Chairman of Nnewi Importers Association, Pastor L.O.Chukwuma disclosed this in Nnewi, Anambra State, yesterday, after a brief meeting of the association to discuss its stake in the forth-coming elections in March and April.

Pastor Chukwuma said the decision to cast protest votes during the election was taken in Nnewi where the bulk of major importers and dealers operate and would be circulated to other parts of the country where dealers in motorcycles and their spare parts could be found.

He said that the importers observed that politicians had continued to use motorcycles as campaign gifts to okada operators and other voters only to ban okada business after being voted into power.

"Politicians give their gifts with one hand and use another hand to collect it back from you aftet the electioneering campaign. They give out motorcycles to okada people in the name of poverty alleviating and once they are elected as governors, the next thing is to ban okada riding and throw thousands of people out of job. That is wickedness. We remember that one of the governors in the South West even gathered okada motorcycles he siezed and crushed them with grinding machines. He destroyed over 6,000 motorcycles," Pastor Chukwuma said. He alleged  that it was Governor Tunde Fashola of Lagos State who maltreated the okada riders and vowed that all stakeholders in motorcycles business all over the country would cast protest votes against whichever political party such governors would identify with.

He argued that criminals did not only use okada motorcycles to operate but also used motor vehicles and other diverse means to carry out their operations.

"Come to Amambra State today, there are okada motorcycles everywhere but it is the safest State in Nigeria. Everyone feels free and crime is controlled. Banning okada business at all is counter-productive and it is not the best way to control crime. If you ban okada business you throw the importers out of business, thousands of dealers in motorcycles spare parts out of business, roadside motorcycle mechanics, vulcnizers out of job, food vendors, out of job and chains of other people along with the dependants of these people affected," the importers chairman analysed.

He advised his members and other eligible voters to get their permanent voters cards ready to enable them vote. "Voters can register their PVCs and vote where they are at the moment and not necessarily going back to where they initially registered," he further advised.

He said that the association wrote to those governors who banned okada business in their various States, and told them that we would remind them what they did in 2015, saying that it was pay back period, now.

On the challenges facing importers, he faulted the clearing system which he described as a reflection of colonial method. He called for a need to introduce a simple way of clearing goods that would allow importers pay their duties and take delivery of their containers.