Kunle Adelabu
-Riders remove victim from GH against Doctor’s advice – MD, Ikorodu GH
About 100 commercial motorcyclists, popularly called ‘Okada’ riders in the local parlance, on Saturday protested the alleged killing of their colleague.
They stormed the Ikorodu Federal Constituency office of Rep. Babajimi Benson along the Ipakodo/Igbogbo Road where they blocked the road, causing traffic.
Protesting riders later allowed vehicles to move on one lane after being prevailed upon by members of the iCare Foundation.
According to the protesting riders, police officers from the Shagamu Road Police station allegedly stormed Sabo market in broad day light on Thursday, December 15, 2022, and started shooting sporadically in an attempt to arrest the riders, and in the process shot at a rider and another Marwa (Tricycle) driver.
It was said that the victim was rushed to the General Hospital Ikorodu, where he was allegedly rejected, and was immediately taken to a private hospital where he was until Saturday morning when he gave up the ghost.
The aggrieved riders appeal to Rep. Benson to intervene in the matter, and save them from constant harassment by the police, especially by officers from Ishagamu Road Police Station, lkorodu.
One of the leaders of the protest, Mr AbdulFatai Ibrahim was shouting profusely on top of his voice outside the Rep. Benson office, and urged that the lawmaker should assist okada riders by intervening to stop police harassment.
While narrating what led to their protest, he added that Ikorodu is not part of the areas where Okada riders are banned by the state government.
“What led to the protest was that we were at the Sabo market junctsure, and suddenly, we saw policemen from the Shagamu Road Police Station arriving at the market and trying to arrest some okada riders while market women were shouting at them to stop harassing us because the place is no part of the areas that we are banned from”, he said.
“It was while one of the policeman was dragging with one of our men, that he removed his gun hung round his neck and shot him. The shooting also affected a marwa driver and our colleague who died today.
“The Governor did not pronounce Ikorodu as part of areas that Okada riders are banned from. We want Jimi Benson to come to our aid and save us from the police harassment”.
Adam, who claimed that he was a ‘doctor’, but ventured into okada riding but the job wasn’t paying, also alleged that:
“We were at the Sabo market three days ago, and we never go beyond the place to carry passengers, but suddenly, police came and shoot Stephen, popularly called ‘Doctor’. We were both practicing as ‘doctors’ before resorting to riding okada because of the bad economy”, he said.
“It is only government that can help us because the guy died today. We first took him to the General Hospital but he was rejected and we later took him to a private hospital where he was receiving treatment but later died today.
“It was policemen from the Ishagamu police station that shot him. They came to bust us at Sabo”, he alleged.
Another rider, Mr Tobendar, called for an amnesty programme for okada riders if the government really want to ban them totally from operating.
“They (policemen) held me in their custody yesterday (Friday) from after 8am tiill 5pm in the evening, and later collected N10, 500 from me. Those boys collecting phones and snatching bags at garage are very well known to these policemen, but they won’t near them but,will always come after us”, he alleged.
“We do collect tickets on daily basis; we are isusued riders card and union are still issuing tickers and we pay other sort of monies to them at every bus stop.
“We want government to recognize us as human beings because we are not thieves. If the government don’t want okada again, they should extend amnesty to us so that we can submit our okadas and they would pay us”, he suggested.
“Many of us collected this okada on higher purchase at exorbitant money, and police are collecting them from us. If government don’t want us to work as okada riders again, they should provide us with compensation and we are ready to park our okadas. That is the normal process. We are not animals”, he added.
Mayor Muhydeen Sanwoola, Director General, iCare Foundation was seen appealing with the leaders of the protesting riders to reconsidered the timing of their protest.
He told them that they are doing more damage to their situation by storming the lawmaker’s Constituency office and blocking the road on a day hundreds of residents are being expected.
He charged them to disperse their members and ensure free passage of men and vehicles for any meaningful dialogue to take place.
Following the DG iCare Foundation’s submission, leadership of the riders exit the compound to address their men and they immediately dispersed.
When contacted, Dr Taiwo Hassan, Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), General Hospital, Ikorodu, said that he saw the victim when he was brought into the hospital and assisted from the car and put on the wheel for admission. He denied that he was rejected and promised to find out, and called our reporter back.
After few minutes, the MD/CEO, General Hospital, called our reporter back to reconfirmed that he was not rejected.
Dr Hassan said that the patient was treated and stabilized, but his people came on Friday to take him away against the doctor’s advice.
“You know that I told you that our hospital can never reject a patient. I just spoke with the doctor that treated him who said that he was removed by his people on Friday”, Dr Hassan said.
“What doctor usually do is not to chase after bullets but stabilize the patient and that was what we did in this guy’s case, but on Friday, against the doctor’s advice, his people removed him from the hospital facility and there is nothing that we can do about that”, the MD/CEO added.
When called for the police side of the story, Mr Benjamen Hundeyin, Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), was unable to pick our reporter’s call. He, however, sent SMS message to inform our reporter that he was in a meeting.
We also sent him a chat on the WhatsApp platform, but he was yet to respond as at the time of going to the press
