Residents of Ajao Estate in Lagos say that they want their area to be included in the list of places that motorcycle taxis, popularly known as Okada, are banned. The chairman of the residents association stated this when he led a delegation to the office of the Lagos State Governor in Alausa today.

Here is a video of the interaction between members of the residents association and journalists outside the governor’s office in Alausa and before that is a transcription of what was said in the video.

The residents association chairman says something that is inaudible.
Journalist: And these godfathers will not go away, so do you think it will not work?
(The chairman doesn’t answer, so the journalist asks another question.)
Journalist: What can the government do to help you?

Residents association chairman: What can the government do to help us is, now that they’ve banned them all over the place, why are we excluded? Why are we not included? They’ve been banned before years ago, when they gave policemen and they burnt their vehicles, why now that they purposely, I don’t know whether by mistake or omission, it was excluded.

Journalist: Do you have documentary evidence that it was excluded?
Residents association chairman: Look at our petition there. It’s there.

Journalist: Did they pay any levy to the CDA sir?
Another member of the residents association: Nobody wants any levy from them. Life is more important than levy.

Residents association chairman: Does the levy help the council?
Another member of the residents association: They are not even living in Ajao. They are not living in the estate. They come from Ejigbo, the road that was recently built by the governor, to enter Ajao Estate. It is from there that they enter, they rob, they escape from there.

Residents association chairman: And to make things worse, just few days ago when this order banning them was announced, they have been rushing to Ajao Estate again, looking for houses, looking for places to live with their okadas! So the place is already being crowded, because when they move from Apapa now, or they move from expressway (Mile 2),

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