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Lagos enforce okada ban statewide

Published

4 hours ago

September 10, 2025

For years, the Lagos State Government has engaged in a running battle with operators of commercial motorcycles known as okada over persistent disregard for road safety rules and route restrictions.

Despite regular raids and seizures of the bikes for route violations, the okada riders remain defiant. This must stop.

In August, the task force team seized 668 bikes and arrested seven suspects during a routine week-long enforcement for compliance operations led by its chairman, Adetayo Akerele.

The operation targeted Ishaga, Balogun Bus Stop on Iju-Ishaga Road, Ijegun Roundabout, Iyana-Iba, Iyana-Ishasi, Igbo-Elerin, and Iyana-School.

The team also raided Volkswagen Bus Stop on the stretch of Lagos-Badagry Expressway, Kola Bus Stop on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, and other restricted routes.

According to Akerele, these areas had been flagged following numerous complaints and distress calls indicating the persistent use of commercial motorcycles by suspected criminals to attack innocent people, tricycle operators, and their passengers, robbing them of valuables, particularly at night.

Apart from robberies, okada riders are notorious for disregarding traffic rules, often riding against traffic even on highways and ignoring traffic lights, sometimes resulting in avoidable accidents.

This underlines the need to enforce a statewide ban on okada to prevent further abuse.

The defiance has spread to operators of tricycles popularly known as Keke Marwa or Keke NAPEP.

This puts the lives of Lagosians at risk and constitutes a serious threat to public safety and order.

The clampdown began in 2006 when the government banned okada operations between 7 pm and 6 am.

In 2012, Governor Babatunde Fashola introduced the Lagos State Road Traffic Law. It prohibits okadas and tricycles on certain routes and restricts motorcycles with engine capacities below 200cc from major expressways. The law mandates a minimum 200cc engine for motorcycles for mail or courier services.

The state government reiterated the ban in 2015 but was largely unsuccessful. By 2017, the government added major highways and bridges to the list of restricted areas. It established the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law 2018, which came into effect in February 2018.

Section 46 (1) of the law stipulates that “no person shall ride, drive or propel a motorcycle or tricycle on a major highway within the state, and any person in contravention of this provision commits an offence liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years with such motorcycle or tricycle forfeited to the State.”

The state government barred these transport operators from six local governments, nine LCDAs, 10 major highways, 40 bridges and flyovers with effect from February 1, 2020. Ride-hailing bikes were also added to the list when they became a nuisance.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has restated the ban from time to time, with regular enforcement raids by the state’s task force on environmental sanitation and special offences, as well as the Nigeria Police Force.

Though the operations of these bikes and tricycles greatly aid transportation in the bustling metropolis, there is an overarching imperative for their activities to be strictly regulated and extended all over the state. The requirement that riders and their passengers use helmets has been largely ignored.

Between 2016 and 2019, Lagos State recorded over 10,000 accidents involving okadas and tricycles, resulting in more than 600 deaths. The National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, in Lagos, also set up an “okada ward” to handle cases arising from bike crashes.

The state government must provide more buses and other public transportation options to cater to the needs of commuters affected by such a ban and reintegrate the riders into alternatives.

There should be collaboration with the private sector to overhaul the transportation system and implement new data-driven decisions after due consultation with the public and other stakeholders.

Most importantly, the safety of lives and property in Lagos must remain the government’s highest priority.

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News

Qatar denies visa restrictions on Nigerians

Published

18 minutes ago

September 10, 2025

Newsbreak365_Admin

The Qatari Ministry of Interior has dismissed reports claiming that it imposed new visa restrictions on Nigerian passport holders.

A ministry official told the BBC Pidgin on Wednesday that there are no restrictions on Nigerians seeking to visit Qatar.

Social media reports had alleged that Qatari authorities introduced a travel ban preventing male applicants from entering the country unless they were travelling with their families.

The reports also claimed that only women or families could apply for visas, with additional requirements of a five-star hotel booking and a return flight ticket before applying for a travel or transit visa.

According to the viral reports, the notification cited frequent cases of overstays by Nigerian travellers as the reason.

However, according to the BBC, Hayya, Qatar’s digital platform for e-visa services, clarified that the visa application process remains unchanged.

“There has been no suspension or changes to the current procedures. If any updates are to be made, they will be announced on our official platforms,” it stated.

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News

FRSC, Army collaborate on intelligence sharing, others

Published

31 minutes ago

September 10, 2025

Newsbreak365_Admin

The Federal Road Safety Corps says it will collaborate with the Nigerian Army on intelligence sharing and organisation of periodic workshops for security agencies.

The Zonal Commanding Officer in charge of Lagos and Ogun states, Mrs Ann Oladayo, an Assistant Corps Marshal, said this in a statement issued on Wednesday in Lagos.

Oladayo listed other areas for collaboration to include security cover for special operations, training and retraining of drivers and vehicles safety.

She said this when she led other senior officers of the corps to the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Farouk Mijinyawa.

According to her, the visit is in a bid to promote the FRSC 2025 Strategic goal two as a lead agency in traffic management and administration in the country.

”The corps would like to bring our professionalism to help in training your new Army recruits in driving. We will also want to engage some of your retiring officers, who intend taking driving as a profession.”

Responding, the GOC said that though, the responsibilities of the Nigerian Army was enormous, it has been able to stabilise security in both states.

Mijinyawa said that the Army was currently collaborating with other security agencies like FRSC, the Police, Customs and others to ensure safety and security of lives.

He pledged the Army’s continuous support and collaboration with the FRSC to ensure safety and security.

In a related development, the FRSC ZCO also visited the Zonal Coordinator, Nigerian Correctional Service; Zone A, Lagos, ACG Ope Fatinikun, where inter-agencies collaboration and synergy were also discussed.

During the interactive session, questions bothering on stigmatisation of ex-convicts, drivers’ license acquisition, and management of road traffic offenders charged to correctional facilities were addressed.

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News

Spanish PM’s wife denies embezzlement allegations in court

Published

37 minutes ago

September 10, 2025

Newsbreak365_Admin

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife Begona Gomez on Wednesday denied in court misusing public funds by hiring a personal assistant in an embezzlement probe that has rattled the leftist government, legal sources said.

The long-running investigation is one of several into Sanchez’s family and former close allies that have embarrassed the Socialist leader and heaped pressure on his minority coalition.

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado set off the saga in April 2024 by opening an investigation to determine whether Gomez exploited her position as Sanchez’s wife for private benefit.

The latest development centres on whether an official employed in the premier’s office, Cristina Alvarez, worked for Gomez during her past academic job at Madrid’s Complutense University.

If that were true, it could “represent a diversion of public resources in favour of private interests”, Peinado wrote in his ruling that summoned both women.

Gomez only replied to her lawyer on Wednesday during a fourth closed-door hearing before Peinado in Madrid, according to legal sources.

She said spouses of previous prime ministers hired staff to coordinate their agenda and security, the sources added.

Gomez said Alvarez never helped her in her private professional activities, though she occasionally sent messages that did not affect her primary work, according to the sources.

Sanchez has dismissed the allegations against his wife as an attempt to undermine his government by the right, which has demanded his resignation.

This month he said there were “judges who do politics and politicians who try to do justice” and denounced spurious complaints by groups with far-right ties.

Separate corruption probes have ensnared two former Socialist heavyweights, Santos Cerdan and ex-transport minister Jose Luis Abalos, as well as the prime minister’s younger brother David Sanchez.

The legal troubles compound woes for the minority government which engages in laborious negotiations with an array of fringe and regional separatist parties to try to pass legislation.

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