Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was accused of not keeping his word regarding the operations of Okada in Lagos State which he made in 2019, has defended himself and his administration, stating that his comments were purely taken out of context by the public, particularly his critics.
According to him, he was not categorical in his comments and never promised that he will not ban Okada in Lagos State. This was disclosed in a statement issued to TheCable, by the governor’s spokesman, Gboyega Akosile.
In the statement, Akosile said;
“There is nothing like ban. We did not ban okada. The law has been there for years, what we have done is to reactivate this law. The past administration was the one that relaxed it and when they relaxed it, they saw the influx of these people into Lagos unchecked.”
“What the governor said at The Platform is neither here nor there. We are looking at the current situation. Do you know that the governor may have said something last year but between that last year and now, the dynamics would have changed? The only constant thing in life is change.”
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Governor Sanwo-Olu, during his talk at The Platform on October 1, 2019, had said that his administration will work out a module which will regulate Okada operations in order to ensure better accountability.
During his speech he Sanwo-Olu said;
“To also solve the traffic issue of Lagos is also to talk about the Okada issue; Okada is everywhere, anywhere you see. Part of the things that we are going to be doing is not to leave anybody behind. People are currently using a system that is working for them,” he said.
“You see some Okada riders that are branded, that use smart ways to pay when you finish the journey. We are trying to harmonise all of them and be able to come up with a regulation system where we can account for every Okada rider.
“We will know who they are, we can manage them. In fact, the solutions that some of them are bringing, they can disenable those okadas remotely. That is where we are planning to get to but it is also something that we need to think through very well and be sure that nobody is disenfranchised.
“As much as possible, give everyone opportunity to play and play well. I’m hoping that once we do all of this, the traffic will be reduced significantly.”