FOR over four hours commercial motorcycle riders, otherwise known as Okada riders, Thursday, paralysed commercial activities in Akure over alleged extortion by the state government.
Efforts by the Union Chairman, Jimoh Obabi to pacify them were turned down as they shouted him down and continued with their protest. Obabi left the scene as the protesters march through Akure metropolis. .
Many people abandoned their vehicles and walked to their different destinations as the Okada riders blocked all major roads in the metropolis. The grouse of the Okada riders according to them was the insistence of government to collect the new commercial number plates.
The intervention of policemen led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police ACP and some soldiers from the 32 Artillery Brigade Nigerian Army Owena Cantonment were rebuffed by the Okada riders.
The protest started at the state Ministry of Transport and spread across the metropolis leaving motorists to trekking long distances. Commercial taxi drivers were harassed by the protesters and their passengers were forced to disembarked and made to trek to their destinations.
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