Ondo Okada drivers protest after police injure woman and baby while seeking N100 bribe

COMMERCIAL motorcyclists in Ondo town have staged a demonstration outside the provincial police station after policemen put a nursing mother and her baby son in hospital while trying to extract a N100 (34p) bribe from an Okada driver.

 

Due to a combination of poor pay and erratic salary payments, Nigeria's policemen survive off extorting money from commercial motorcycle, bus and taxi drivers. They regularly mount impromptu and illegal roadblocks across the country and refuse to let those who do not pay through.

 

Over the weekend, one such operation went sour when a policeman in Ondo town in Ondo State tried to extort money from the driver of a commercial motorcycle known as Okada in local parlance. He ended up injuring the driver's passengers who happened to be a nursing mother with her baby son strapped to her back.

 

Both passengers were injured in an accident caused by attempt by a policeman to extort N100 from the  Okada man. Eyewitness account said trouble started when a team of anti-crime police officers attached to one of the police stations in the town allegedly mounted a road block in one of the major roads.

 

In an attempt to stop the Okada rider, one of the officers pulled down the boy and mother, while the motorcycle was still in motion. After the accident, the mother and child were rushed to the hospital, leading to commercial motorcycle operators staging a peaceful protest to show their displeasure over alleged incessant extortion by policemen in the town.

 

Timilehon Akinrolabu, a spokesman for the Okada drivers condemned the attitude of the policemen, who he said were in the habit of extortion at illegal road block in strategic locations in the town. They reportedly protested to all the three divisional police stations in the town.

 

Mr Akinrolabu said: “We decided to embark on the peaceful protest to tell the police that we are tired with the way they extort money from our members. This is common when the month is about to end as they would be looking for their monthly contributions, at times they usually used their patrol vehicles to raid our parks and arrest our members over flimsy excuses.

 

. “The police in this town are not enforcing the law at all; they are extorting money from our members, demanding N100 and N50. Another aspect of the story is that when the Okada men get go their stations, each have to cough out between N1,500 and N2,000 for bail.”

 

However, the state police command has denied the allegation of extortion by its officers. One senior officer in said that Okada riders who were arrested had no identification numbers on their motorcycles.