By Damilola Akinlotan
Hell was let loose this morning in Ado metropolis as angry commercial motorcyclists popularly called okada riders embarked on a peaceful protest against what they described as a reign of terror unleashed on them by the union.
They expressed their anger and frustration at the massive extortion and brutality of members by the okada union under the leadership of the current chairman, Comrade kunle Asaolu.
They however appealed to the Governor of Ekiti State Mr Biodun Oyebanji to intervene in the matter as they maintained that they are peace loving and law abiding ctizens.
They claimed to have exhausted their patience over the unruly behaviour of those union ticketers who have capitalized the power given to them to exthort and brutalize them while performing their official duty on daily basis.
According to report, trouble started around Ekute area this morning when one of the ticketers accosted an okada rider who was carrying a female passenger. The union officer in his bid to forcefully seize the moving bike pushed the rider right in the front of a speeding trycyclist resulting in a crash where the passenger sustained serious injuries.
The ugly drama it was learnt incurred the wrath of other okada riders as they gathered around the scene of the incident.
They seemed to have been waiting for that particular event to happen in order to vent their anger.
In a spontaneous reaction, hundreds of members of the association took to the streets calling for the total scrapping of the okada union in the State.
They took their protest to Ewi’s Palace and later proceeded to some radio stations in the city. But security operatives have been drafted to the scene to prevent a total breakdown of law and order.
Some of the embattled protesters told our correspondent that they have been taken for a ride by the union over the years as the union leaders were only concerned with feeding fat on their sweat by using their agents to collect thousands of Naira from them on daily basis while nothing was remitted to the state coffers.
Attempts to reach out to the union chairman, Comrade kunle Asaolu was unsuccessful as at time of filing this report as his phone was not reachable.
