By Tony Edike

ENUGU – NO fewer than 2,000 commercial motorbikes, popularly called Okada, have so far been impounded by the police in Enugu.

The motorbikes were impounded by policemen from Uwani, Awkunanaw, Ikilike, Garki, New Haven, Ogui, Central Police Station, Abakaliki Road and other police Divisions within the state capital.

The seizure followed Enugu State government’s ban on the operations of commercial motor-bikes on some major roads in the state capital, principally to checkmate robbery operations by persons using fast-moving motorbikes and to decongest the crowded roads and reduce the high rate of road accidents involving commercial motorcycle operators and their passengers.

The government recently commenced the enforcement of the law, following increasing security concerns in the state capital.

Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Job Doma, who spoke on telephone to confirm the ongoing arrest of the erring Okada riders, said recent security reports showed that men riding on fast-moving motorbikes robbed unsuspecting residents.

He said some of the victims of the robbery attacks were trailed right from the banks where they had gone to withdraw some money, stressing that the police had to perform their lawful duty of protecting innocent citizens and their property.

All the police Divisions in the Enugu metropolis have been ordered to execute the law banning commercial motorcyles operating on some major roads in Enugu,”. Doma said.

He added that police patrol teams had been deployed to give adequate security to law abiding and innocent residents, so they could have a crime-free yuletide.

On the robbery operation that occurred yesterday on Enugu-Onitsha highway, around Ugwuoba in the Oji River Local Government Area of the state, during which travellers, particularly traders were robbed of their cash valued at millions of Naira, Doma said the robbers were not actually Fulani cattle rearers as alleged but indigenes of the area.

“The people robbing are indigenes of that area. They are not Fulani cattle men,” he said, adding that no arrest had been made so far in connection with the incident.