A human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, has described the restriction of okada in Lagos roads as “a callous attempt to flush out the poor” in the state.
Aturu said this during a press conference on the forthcoming Bamidele Aturu and Co Annual Law and Social Development Public Lecture holding on October 29 in Lagos.
He explained that efforts to make Lagos a mega city must not be at the expense of the poor.
He said, “To make the poor scapegoats for their project is a crime worse than rape. It is good to make Lagos and our other urban cities look like London or Dubai. But it is pointless to make them London populated by paupers. May God truly help us to sleep with our two eyes closed.
“Nevertheless, it needs to be stressed that it is futile to think, as the elite do, that the poor will simply vanish from our space. That is not going to happen. They will only be forced by the draconian laws and policies to seek all sorts of counter cultural and criminal survival strategies.”
According to him, there is an increasing tendency among the ruling elite across the country, especially in Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, to victimise the poor.
“When their houses are not being demolished without adequate notice as in Makoko and FCT evictions, their miserable means of livelihood are being denied them on the ground that it constitutes a nuisance to the aesthetic fancy of the elite as can be seen in the draconian restriction of okadas from 475 roads in Lagos State without an alternative means of livelihood,” he said.
The lawyer, who blamed the government for protests by the riders, however, urged the okada operators to shun violence.
October 26, 2012 by Sodiq Oyeleke
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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