Don Jazzy Just Launched a Life-Changing Opportunity for Nigerians - Here's How to Get Yours!

Commercial motorcyclists plying Oke- Ira from the Shonola Street junction, opposite the Excellence Hotel, Aguda, in the Ogba area of Lagos State, have accused the police of harassment, extortion and seizure of their motorcycles.

The motorcyclists told Punch that the police were carrying out regular raids on them despite the fact that they were not congregating on the Excellence Hotel junction, but on Shonola Street.

One of the commercial motorcyclists, who identified himself simply as Michael, said the police were coming to the street, where they wait for passengers, to impound their motorcycles.

According to him, they have had to leave Oke-Ira and  the Excellence Hotel junction, where they used to wait for passengers, to avoid frequent abuse of their rights by the police.

Another motorcyclist, who identified himself simply as Abdullahi, told PUNCH Metro that he just started work on the day the police took his motorcycle away, adding that he had been ill for almost two weeks.

He said he had to borrow N4,000 from a friend to give to the police before his motorcycle was released.

Punch had in September reported a similar incident with the motorcyclists lamenting that they could not get back their motorcycles as they could not trace where the policemen came from.

They had said that while waiting to pick passengers, the police usually emerge in mini buses and sometimes on tricycles and push them off the motorcycles, which they usually take to their stations in Ogba and Agege.

The motorcyclists noted that they had to pay the police at Ogba N2,200 and those from Pen Cinema N5,200 before their motorcycles were released.

One of the motorcyclists had told PUNCH Metro, “These people will come in police uniform in the morning, afternoon and evening, flash their identification cards and take away as many motorcycles as they can. They tell us that they are taking the motorcycles to Alausa.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana, said he had inquired about the incident from the Divisional Police Officer, Pen Cinema Police Station, who denied that anything of such happened under her watch.

Elkana urged the motorcyclists to come to his office with evidence to substantial their claims. Punch