Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has revealed that the crime and death rate has dropped as a result of the ban placed on commercial motorcycles popularly known as okada in the state.

Punch Metro reported that the state government had outlawed the operation of Okada in six local governments and nine local council development areas under them. The affected LGAs are Ikeja, Surulere, Eti-Osa, Lagos Mainland, Lagos Island and Apapa.

However, during an appearance on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics, Sanwo-Olu said that the okada-related accidents recorded in the state have dropped from 550 to 100.

He said: “Speaking on the ban on Okada, we have seen tremendous improvement in the areas that okada has been banned. Not only have we seen a drop in issues around security like traffic robberies, we have also seen a significant drop in okada accidents. We don’t see limbs being cut in our hospitals again.

“In terms of death alone, at the peak of the ban, we had 550 okada-related accidents on a monthly basis but now, okada-related accidents have come down to less than 100.

“I also told the RRS that we need to do a lot of pin downs and do pedestrian monitoring so that people can see them. These are some of the things that we have been doing.”