A NATIONWIDE protest vote by Importers, dealers and traders in motorcycles and spare parts across the country may protest the ban on the use of motorcycles for commercial transport in some states by mobilizing their members to vote against candidates that support the ban.
Chairman of Nnewi Importers Association, Pastor Longinus Chukwuma who disclosed this in Nnewi, Anambra State, Tuesday said the association’s decision to seek their pound of flesh in the election was collectively taken in its national delegates meeting and would be circulated to other parts of the country where dealers in motorcycles and their spare parts could be found.
According to him, “Politicians give out motorcycles to okada riders in the name of poverty alleviation and once they are elected governors, the next thing is to ban okada riding and throw thousands of people out of job.
That is wickedness. We remember that one of the governors in the South West even gathered okada motorcycles he seized and crushed over 6,000 of them.”
He vowed that all stakeholders in motorcycles business all over the country would cast protest votes against whichever political party such governors would identify with.
“Come to Anambra State today, there are okada motorcycles everywhere but it is the safest state in Nigeria.
Everyone feels free and crime is controlled. Banning okada business at all is counter-productive because if you ban okada business you throw the importers out of business, thousands of dealers in motorcycles spare parts out of business, roadside motorcycle mechanics, food vendors, out of job and others along with the dependants of these people affected.”
