Okada Riders Take over Lagos Airport

Notes for File

Nigeria is just a funny place to live in. Warnings by security agencies, federal and state governments and other agencies are not always taken seriously.

A few years ago, in a bid to curb robbery and other criminal activities at the Lagos airport, the Airport Command of the Nigeria Police Force, banned commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as okada, from operating within the vicinity of the Murtala Muhammed Airport.

Despite this order, there is no part of the airport where these okada operators do not operate currently.

A lot of times, they are even seen everywhere riding against the traffic and constituting a nuisance to the environment.

What is most annoying is that daily, before the very eyes of these policemen, okada men move around unchallenged.

Perhaps they are waiting for when a very serious security breach will happen at the airport before they begin to run helter-skelter to issue another directive.

Rumours have it that these okada operators pay the police a huge amount of money for them to look the other way while they ply their trade.

Where in the world would such category of people, who in most cases, indulge in criminal activities be allowed to constantly have access to the airport if not only in Nigeria where laws, rules and regulations are not obeyed.

Even the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), which is in charge of managing the airports in the country is turning a blind eye to the activities of these commercial motorcycle operators, until there is a major security breach and they begin to apportion blame.