The Allegation On N5,000 fee for jacket In Ogun Is Untrue By The Okada Riders, COMORIS Chairman Speaks Out

 

Following protest by motorcylists, popularly known as Okada riders in Ogun State over an alleged introduction of new riders permit and jacket, the management of the Commercial Motocycle Riders Identification Scheme (COMORIS) has debunked the allegation, describing it as untrue.

It would be recalled that the State Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun called a meeting with the  three unions ( ACOMORAN, ROMO, AMORAN) in charge of motorcyclists' operation in the State over the influx of okada riders into the State from Lagos State due to their ban on Lagos highways.

The meeting brought about the setting up of the Scheme being managed by an independent consultant. 

The Chairman of the scheme, Mr.

Juwon Adebanjo while speaking at a Press conference in Abeokuta on Tuesday, said the registration of the okada riders was borne out of some nefarious activities of some criminal elements among the riders.

He said the scheme was not designed to introduce any riders permit or to over burdened the riders with any undue levy but a security instrument for the riders. 

Adebanjo explained that the scheme was to capture number of Okada riders, owners of motorcycles and next of kins of riders in order to monitor their operations. 

His words: "The scheme was born out of the hoodlums activities, kidnapping which is seriously affecting the security of the state. And the banning and restrictions of Okadas in Lagos state which is the neighboring state and directly they are moving into Ogun State, all these are put to together by the commissioner of police to call meeting which was in attendance with all the three recognized unions and the security outfits in the state".

"And it was decided that the scheme shouldn't be run through the union neither the government but an independent consultant. We started in June 29 and our first intention was to close everything in June 27, given a month window of registration".

On , he said "The registration is coming in three phases, we want to really caption the riders, the next of kin and the owners of the motorcycle, where there's no owner of the motorcycle, we will caption the motorcycle itself. Captioning the motorcycle in the sense that, we want to know the registration number, chasis number and if possible, if the motorcycle is on instalment payment as at now and for how long and if not then we know it belongs to the owner".

Speaking on the alleged introduction of another riders permit, he said "We are doing something far far above riders permit and what we're doing is purely a security instrument which is going to generate its own unique number and wherever the riders goes off, that number goes off. That is if that person dies, the number dies. Is not something that can be transfer to any other person".

He added "This unique number is what will now lead into identification which is the riders jacket and it's also a unique one which is your true identity that also involve affidavit to know who is rider in Ogun State".

On the protest, said "I Want to plea, if there's any uproar because I don't want to conclude but it could be those who are really trying to hide there identity,  because this job was not given to any politician neither any union but it was given to a technocrat who are really ready to work on what is expected on the security instrument.

Up till this moment the jackets is still under production and not at any point in time as even discuss price for it". 

On the N5,000 fee for jacket, he said "Something that is being produced from out Nigeria depends on a lot of factors and I don't know how the protesters arrived at N5, 000  but I can tell you categorically that it wouldn't be up to 5000, so on the allegation of 5, 000 we don't know anything about it.

While speaking on the scheme, he stated "Finally, the three unions doesn't have any direct impact, not benefiting anything neither the government is benefiting anything from this  because if there's any reason for government to generate any revenue from this, I will not be the one as a consultant probably anyone from IRS will be there to generate revenue for the state".