Police, Kubwa residents strategise on Okada menace

Residents of Kubwa in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have urged the police to prevail on the Bwari Area Council to regularise activities of commercial motorcycle operators (Okada riders) in order to check increasing criminal activities among them.

The residents at an interactive meeting of stakeholders on community-based policing held at the Police Area Command in Kubwa on Saturday presided over by the Area Commander, ACP Arungwa Nwazue, urged the council authorities to register okada operators and compel them to wear numbered reflective jackets for easy identification.

The stakeholders who gave grim narratives of atrocities committed by okada operators urged the Area Commander to expedite action on the matter, or consider informing the area council of the possibility of substituting commercial motorcycles with tricycles (Keke Napep).

The Life Patron, Police Community Relations Committee in Kubwa, retired Capt. Aliyu Garba (Barden Bwari), urged the council to make it mandatory for the Okada operators to not only wear numbered reflective jackets but also register with their current passport photographs at the area command with the same number imprinted on their motorcycles.

He said community leaders, church and mosque leaders should mobilise their followers to patronise only identifiable okada operators and urged the police to rise to the responsibility of checking illegal drug use among them.

Responding, the Area Commander, ACP Arungwa Nwazue, thanked the residents for the robust interaction, saying though okada operators constitute part of the society, their activities need to be regulated to check abuse and criminal activities. He said he would forward their recommendations to the Bwari Area Council chairman for approval and appropriate action. Giving a crime review in Kubwa, the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Nurudeen Sabo, said two suspects of a “One Chance” gang were recently arrested with a car and some exhibits, a man was arrested in Phase 4 when he attempted to snatch a woman’s bag, two armed robbers were arrested for snatching motorcycles with exhibits recovered, while a robbery was foiled at the Federal Housing Estate after a distress call.