 Legal City Police Commissioner Bioduala B has clarified that residents who operate motorcycles for career services or other private dealings will not be affected by the latest Okada ban. The latest ban on Okadas in the state comes after a sound engineer, David Emo, was allegedly lynched to death by motorcycle riders in the leaky area of the state over a fair dispute. Police commissioners stressed that the enforcement of the ban this time will be more thorough as most Okada riders are criminals and must be taken off the road. When I've been joined in the studio by Ola Bordiogini, the councillor would F1 and also doubles as the deputy council leader Lagos Island East LCD. Thank you for joining us on the news this night. Good evening and thanks for having me. This is not the first time the government is actually banning commercial motorcycles on the highway but it seems the enforcement is not successful. What's the local government doing to ensure that this ban is implemented? Well, as a government, as a local government, which is the closest government to the people, what we are going to do or what we have been doing is to enlighten our people, to make them see reasons because the government is there to make laws and then there's no government that will sit back and watch its states or local government being turned to a lawless territory. So the government has made the law and the people are bound to obey the law. So we as a government, closest to the people, have been enlightening our people, letting them see reason why they have to respect the law because the law must be enforced. Now the recent damage to the co-bridge exposed some market problems in Lagos. How are laws enforced on street trading in Lagos? Well, there are laws banning street trading in Lagos. At the state level we have what we call the central business street tax force, the CBD tax force. And as a government that I represent that I serve in, in Lagos Island East LCDA, which equal bridge falls under our jurisdiction as well because we have two councils in Lagos Island. We have the Lagos Island local government and the Lagos Island East LCDA. We have a law banning street trading, complete ban on street trading within. But you know, people do really like to obey the law, that is why the government are there. And then we have created, we have set up the, in our local government we have the environmental sanitation core. So their job basically is to go across all the roads, all the streets and markets and ensure they work in collaboration with the CBD and other law enforcement agents. Okay, so what are these laws that being enforced on street trading? There's a total ban on street trading, but you know, you cannot ban and at times it can be difficult when you ban people from trading and you are not providing alternatives for them to sell because naturally people want to survive. They want to look for a way to sell their wares and survive. And in Lagos, we have it on record based on statistics that over 10,000 people come into Lagos every day with the sole aim of living in Lagos. So we can imagine the influx of people coupled with the recent security unrest in the southeast part of the country. So what we are doing is to develop more markets and you know, Lagos Island local government as it is, does not really have much space for markets, but still the government is working particularly at the local government level to develop markets within the local government and these are markets that can be affordable, not price to eye for people, affordable markets for people. As I speak to you now, there is a project going on on Simpson Street in Lagos Island. Some blocks of shops have been developed and when they finish from there, the Zecliff chairman is going to develop another market at Olu Sura axis. So these are alternatives that we are providing so that we can get people out of the streets so that they can have somewhere to trade. All right, thank you very much. I need us to focus more on uteristiveness, especially in inner cities of Lagos. What's the government doing to get rid of street orchards in these areas? Like we all know, and there's no denying the fact that that has been the current issue in Lagos Island and the government has been doing its best. Every government that has come has been doing its best. And this government that is in place now that came into power July 2021 has been doing its best also to ensure that the menace of uteristiveness in Lagos Island is eradicated. You know, it is not always easy, it won't be easy for it to be totally eradicated, but at least it will be brought to the barest minimum, their activities. So we have a skilled Lagos Island East LCDA skilled acquisition center, which is being upgraded. As I speak to you about two months ago, some equipment were brought into the skilled acquisition center. Over 100 industrial sewing machines were brought in there by the executive chairman of Lagos Island East LCDA, and then some other equipment too were brought in. We have different sections there. We have fashion designing. We have soup making. We have barbein. We have tailoring. We have R&D engineering there. So we are trying to remove those guys from the streets. We are trying to bring them to, you know, it is very important that we give them what can keep them busy. So it ends the need for us to make sure that we train them. Okay, so I need to ask, these motorcycles that are being banned, wouldn't it affect state revenue in a way? State governments, you know, I'm a lawmaker at the local government level, and I'm very privy to the making of our budgets. And it is, I can tell you categorically that the state government and the local government, no government collect any revenue from Ocala riders. Because there's a ban on the activities. The first law was made in 2012 by the administration of Governor Bagile Fashella. And then it was, that law was reviewed in 2018 by the administration of Governor Akiyomi Ambodi, you understand? So there is a total ban on the activities across all the 492 roads, major routes in Lagos. So there's no way the government is going to affect the revenue of the government because in the first place, government is not even collecting revenue from them. If you see anybody collecting revenue from Ocala riders in Lagos, they are just doing that illegally. There is no body today in Lagos, no government, either at the state level or the local government level, that is collecting any revenue from Ocala riders. So finally, what then do you think is the solution? Because it has resulted in violence in the state current? Well, people are always, people are always, you know, want to resist enforcement of the law whenever a new law is being introduced. But that is where the security comes in, that is the security oppressive, that is where the activities comes in. Once the security oppressive are resolute, that they must enforce the law, then that law will stand. We have seen it work. It worked before doing the administration of Governor Bagile Fashella. So it all lies in the hands of our security oppressive. As a government, as a democratic government, we can only make laws, we cannot go to enforce. So when we make laws, we now pass it over to the security oppressive. It is not led for the security oppressive because even some of those security oppressive themselves too, they have bikes that they use for commercial purposes. So whenever they are determined that they want to make the law work, of course it will work and nobody can stop the government because the government is greater than any individual. Thank you very much for joining us on the news tonight. Thank you very much for having me. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.