A Ministerial Joint Task Force came on under attack, last Thursday, when unidentified persons opened fire on members of the team who were on enforcement duties along the Car Wash Area in Lugbe.
The joint taskforce made up of security personnel from the Nigerian Police, DSS, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Directorate of Road Traffic Services, also referred to as VIO, and the men of the AEPB, were impounding motorcycles plying the Airport Road among other traffic violation, when they were attacked.
The attackers, suspected to be Okada riders, mobilized themselves and started shooting at the joint taskforce team and attacking them with different dangerous weapons.
Despite the challenge, the joint taskforce was able to impound over 100 commercial motorcycles for violating various traffic offenses including driving against traffic, driving on the express road.
According to the Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the Minister of FCT, Ikharo Attah, the removal of Okada on the airport corridor is a ministerial directive to curb the menace of commercial motorcyclists along that route.
Condemning the attack of FCT and security officials, Attah said, “For us attack is a regular thing for us, we are used to being attacked and we have been attacked severally. Before the joint taskforce came on board the security men have always been under attack by these okada riders, it is a regular thing here”.
He said items recovered include one locally made gun, pistol, cutlasses and dagger.
He reiterated the commitment of the minister in ensuring sanity in Abuja, “What is going on here the people or Okada riders don’t understand the resolve of the Minister of FCT, to keep the city clean and properly under control. They think they could have ungoverned spaces here especially in Lugbe.
“The okada riders along Lugbe FHA and Lugbe car wash has been a problem. While the men were removing them from the express way, some of them Okada riders in Lugbe car wash attacked them and we took the okada and actually cleared them away. We recovered knives, cutlasses.”
On how many Okadas were impounded, he said, “There was massive impounding of Okadas, we impounded over 100.”
The Head of Directorate of Road Traffic Services team, Adamu shehu, urged the motorcycle riders to stop violation of traffic rules warning that the team would not relent on its mandate of curbing the activities of traffic offenders.
