Breaking: Oyo State Govt Plans To Register All Commercial Motorcycle Operators In The State
Oyo State government has revealed her plans to issue identification numbers and registration jackets to commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as Okada riders, in the state in order to curb all forms of criminal activities in the State.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic planning, Professor Musibau Babatunde, said the registration is part of Oyo State Government’s drive to ensure effectiveness of the ongoing State-wide Residents’ registration programme.
He made this known in Ibadan, on Thursday during a stakeholders’ meeting with over 100 Commercial Riders Association leaders. Musibau said the registration will help in planning properly for the security architecture of the state, in the long-run.
“States across the south-west have been banning operations of commercial motorcyclists, but we know that will have its own socio-economic challenges. So rather than banning them, we felt it is pertinent to know the number of bike-riders in the State and use that for our security architecture,” he said.
Also, the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun said the registration will help regulate the influx of commercial motorcyclists into the state.
Olatubosun explained that the Oyo State Government has made necessary arrangements to update the database of the riders in conjunction with its consultant.
“We will set up a task force consisting of both the union and other relevant agencies that will make sure that unregistered riders don’t operate within the state,” he said.
Actually, registration exercises had commenced months back at every Local government and office of the Oyo State Road Transport Management Authority. All is now set to provide numbered jackets, in order to identify riders who are duly registered with the state.
On his part, the special assistant to the governor on ICT and e-governance, Bayo Akande, said that the registration process was initiated by the state government to distinguish every rider operating in the state.
This, he said, had become imperative in order to curb every form of criminality and other social vices.
The registration will require each commercial bike rider’s name, address, fingerprint, passport-sized photograph, and a unique ID number will be given to their bikes.
