Federal Government Àsks States To Stop Use Of Okada

The Federal Government has called on states to
stop the use of commercial motorcycles as
means of transportation.
It said the decision to dissuade the use of
commercial motorcycles in states was reached
by stakeholders during the recent 13th meeting
of the National Council on Transport.
A communiqué after the meeting, which was
made available to our correspondent by the
Federal Ministry of Transport on Monday,
urged states to intensify the enforcement of
existing laws on road worthiness.
Reading from the communiqué at a one day
conference on the use of road and accident
prevention techniques in Abuja, the Minister of
Transport, Senator Idris Umar, said as states
worked towards putting off commercial
motorcycles, they should also encourage the
use of speed-limiting devices on commercial
passenger and goods only vehicles.
He said, “States should discourage the use of
commercial motorcycles as means of public
transportation. They are encouraged to
establish functional Vehicle Inspection Offices
to ensure proper road safety enforcement,
driving license processing and road worthiness
testing.”
Umar, who was represented by the ministry’s
Permanent Secretary, Mr. Nebolisa Emordi, said
the NCT decided to create the required
awareness on the alarming rate of road crashes
on the nation’s highways, which had continued
to claim thousands of lives yearly.