The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde has disclosed that the state has no intention of following Lagos State’s plan of banning commercial motorcycles, popularly known as Okada. He however stated that his administration will rather regulate, and identify criminals to be dealt with later.

Makinde disclosed this in a Q&A session on Twitter on Saturday morning with residents of the state.

He also revealed that in the last 30 days, the state has not heard of armed robbers or had any security issues.

He said, “We have no intention of banning Okada. We will regulate them, we will identify them and the criminals will be dealt with. I have seen people with their cars jump okada to go to the bank. They are serving a purpose.”

He added that the state has also started an identity management. He said, “If we say ban because Lagos did it, what next? Those riding Okada legitimately you take them out of business.”

On human development achievements, he said, “When we came in we focused on 4 pillars: Education -we will ensure that Oyo State from WAEC results and other data, we were able to move from 26 to number 11.

“We also said that in the healthcare sector, primary, secondary and tertiary, we were going to ensure that our healthcare facilities were not just mere consulting rooms. To a large extent, we have been able to make progress.

While on insecurity, reacting to incidents of the Abuja-Kaduna rail attack, he said the state has been proactive to ensure its rail axis is protected by working with the Commissioner of Police.

“We are proactive. We don’t wait for things to happen. We take the initiative. So we cover all these areas. What is important is that we have the cooperation of the people. Once they have issues and they don’t understand what is going on, they give us information.”

“What people don’t realise is that in the last 30 days we have not heard of armed robbers or security issues. This is not because service commanders are sleeping. It is because of the work they are doing. People only talk about security when there are breaches.” he said.