There was pandemonium along the Agege Motor road on Wednesday as commercial motorcyclists and policemen clashed.
Scores of protesting cyclists held other motorists to ransom as they pursued policemen attached to the Lagos State Taskforce who had gone to enforce the traffic law.
The Nation reports Wednesday’s episode was an extension of Tuesday’s clash between the party which started off at Second Rainbow along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway where a paramilitary officer was wounded.
According to sources, aggrieved cyclists whose bikes were carted away the previous day had sent out messages to their colleagues to be prepared for battle against the officials.
Armed with cutlasses and bottles, the riders who took over the BRT lanes on that stretch, outnumbered the policemen in a Taskforce patrol van and caused them to flee to safety.
They were seen advancing towards the policemen fiercely, a move that made other road users scamper to safety while the policemen ran away.
Trouble was said to have started at Iyana Ipaja axis where officials approached the motorcyclists to leave the expressway especially the BRT corridor.
The directive however met resistance from the cyclists who said they usually pay daily levies and should not be prohibited from working or restricted to certain routes.
A motorcyclist, Yusuf, said the seizure of motorcycle started from Iyana Ipaja, adding the riders resisted them and retrieved all the seized motorcycles.
“The officers started impounding motorcycles and arresting our members from Iyana-Ipaja so we resisted them and got back all the motorcycles.
“They started shooting at us and we chased them from Iyana-Ipaja to Ikeja-along where they eventually left us.
“The task force officials are fond of harassing us and we won’t take that anymore. If they seize our motorcycles, what do they expect us to be surviving on?
“The government needs to have mercy on us, they cannot just say they want to stop motorcycle from plying the roads without providing an alternative for us.”
As the officials fled, the rampaging riders were said to have vandalised properties within reach, including BRT buses and setting up bonfires.
A petty trader said: “We were going about our daily activities when the Taskforce officers parked their vehicles at one corner and started arresting Okada riders.
“The Okada riders mobilised themselves to resist the officers and they started shooting sporadically not minding who their bullets would hit.
“We had to leave our goods and ran for safety when we noticed that it was getting tensed up.”
Although police declined comments on the issue, it was gathered that about 26 of the cyclists were arrested.
It was learnt that security reinforcement was deployed to the scene which led to the arrest of the suspects.
tripleclicks.com
Comments
Post a Comment