According to Boboye Oyeyemi, the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, commercial motorcycle operators known as okada riders have thwarted the implementation of protective helmets designed to decrease the impact of accidents on riders and their passengers. In 2015, the corps marshal said that the agency will launch a statewide crackdown on motorcyclists who were not wearing a helmet, citing the fact that the fall in helmet use was bringing unfathomable dangers.
In protest over the death of an okada rider in an accident while being chased by some FRSC marshals for allegedly riding against the traffic, some irate commercial motorcyclists in Minna, Niger State’s capital, burned down the FRSC office and attacked some road marshals in 2020.
In a recent conversation with journalists, Oyeyemi stated the FRSC had to slow down because of savage attacks on its troops by okada riders, among other things.
He said: “You don’t expose your personnel to such danger” by allowing them to ride on motorbikes without helmets. The FRSC has, however, not given up on the campaign, adding that it was working on a new enforcement strategy to ensure compliance.
He also said many states had banned them from the urban areas and restricted them to the fringes, noting that the Highway Code/traffic regulations forbid motorcycles and tricycles on the expressway.
