Enforcing motorcycle ban in Abuja

Blaming their conduct on the culture of impunity, the minister this constituted a gross act of indiscipline and disregard for the law.Indeed, it is common to see people dressed in the uniforms of security agencies riding their motorcycles on the streets of Abuja, with scant regard for other road users. In the most brazen form […]

Blaming their conduct on the culture of impunity, the minister this constituted a gross act of indiscipline and disregard for the law.
Indeed, it is common to see people dressed in the uniforms of security agencies riding their motorcycles on the streets of Abuja, with scant regard for other road users. In the most brazen form of indiscipline, they ride against traffic.
Mohammed told journalists at the end of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) that the police, military and personnel of other security agencies indulged in that kind of conduct the extent of which had become worrisome to the government. “If you go around certain parts of the FCT, you would see them behaving with absolute impunity and arrogance”, he noted.  
Some of the security agents, in their defence, said that the motorcycle was their sole means of transport to their workplaces; that may be true, but it does not excuse any violation of traffic rules. Thousands of residents leave satellite towns of the FCT and commute to the city centre daily. If they are allowed to ride on their motorcycles to the city, the chaos this would bring can only be imagined.
The uniform does not confer immunity to prosecution when they break the law; they cannot be above the law by virtue of being in one form of uniform or another. In fact, the uniform should be a check on their conduct in public.  
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on October 1, 2006 introduced the ban on the operation of commercial motorcycles known as okada as a means of public transportation in Abuja. The ban followed public outcry over the menace operators of okada in Abuja city had constituted themselves into. Motorcycles were used by criminals as means of quick getaway from crime scenes such as banks and residential areas. They were also used in many cases involving snatching of ladies’ handbags, mobile handset, etc, from unsuspecting passersby. There were rising numbers of casualties from accidents involving okada riders.  These risks are still prevalent with reports of increasing number of security personnel deploying that mode of locomotion.
It is important therefore for heads of security agencies in Abuja to call their personnel to order and advise them to be law abiding. If there is some laxity in enforcing the ban, perhaps it is time for the FCT administration to overhaul the task force charged with implementing it.  It is simply unfair that while civilian violators of the ban are summarily tried and jailed, uniformed security agents go scot-free without as much as a query for the same infringements.
Calls for a review of the law banning the use of motorcycles in Abuja in order to allow security agents to use motorcycles need to be handled with caution. If the law had worked in cities like Lagos, there is no reason why it should not be applied successfully in Abuja.  
Minimising the problem would also require that the FCTA play its part by providing more of the inter-and intra-city mass transit buses that it promised in the heat of the last workers’ nationwide strike over removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government.
It is time also that the oft-promoted FCT Rail Mass Transit project was moved beyond its conception stage to project implementation. If completed, it would move people in large numbers between satellite towns and different districts of Abuja City, making the use of motorcycles less attractive.