By Lamidi Bamidele
Taking into serious consideration the issue of security, most areas and some streets in Lagos State  have restricted  commercial motorcycle transportation. This sadly is not the case with the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

In most part of the world, airports are well secured, safe, clean and the activities of touts and others who have no business being there restricted. This is because international airports are the first places to behold by visitors thus giving them a fair, first impression about a country.

Unfortunately commercial motorcyclists operating within the MMIA Lagos do so with scant regard or respect for the various security operatives on duty there. Some observers say they would not be surprised if in the near future, these so-called Okada operators extend their services to the airport’s tarmac as they presently drop and pick  passengers at the international terminal car park and around the General Aviation Terminal of the airport.

Indeed, according to one of the Okada men: “I have been operating at this airport for some years now”. Asked about the likelihood of arrest by police and other security operatives, he said: “We know one another, I am not new in this area”.

The questions begging for answer include: Whether all the security operatives in the airport are ignorant of this development. Is there a tacit agreement between the commercial motorcyclists and the airport authorities?  Has the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN,  considered the risk of not regulating the activities of these motorcyclists, especially in the light of the spate of bombings in some parts of the country?

While worried stakeholders say they are not calling for the outright ban of commercial motorcycle activities at the airports, they are, however, of the view that there is absolute need to regulate their activities so as to curb their excesses, especially that bordering on recklessness and lack of identification.

They are also calling on FAAN to wake up to its  responsibility in this regard and become proactive on this issue.

As far as some travellers and airport users are concerned, instead of the Authority towing vehicles in every nook and cranny of the Airport, harassing motorists even on weekends, it should concentrate on what to do to check the security challenge posed by the Okada riders.