IBADAN – Association of Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle and Tricycle, Owners, Repairers, and Riders Association of Nigeria, ACOMORAN, has suggested the collapse of existing unions of motorcycle and Tricycle riders in Oyo state to aid supervision and monitoring in view of rising spate of insecurity.
Speaking with ametrocopy in Ibadan, the state Chairman, ACOMORAN, Alh Saheed Folaranmi said the breaking of the Union into splinter groups has made it quite difficult to monitor members and account for them.
‘You know we have units that register new members and these units are put under branches that are now grouped into Local Governments.
The heads of these units, Branches, and Local Government arms will be responsible for the members.’
‘It is also part of security measure to collapse the unions into maybe one because as we speak, we are up to like 10 unions and there are some who don’t even have members but once they are registered with the CAC, they have become unions.
Most states have only one union and that is the ACOMORAN but we have multifarious groups here and it is impossible for me to stop or question a rider that is not a member of my association. What matters most is the identification of the members and this can be done through the wearing of uniforms and the use of Identification Cards.’
The association also lauded the introduction of daily fees of #100 payable by Motorcycle riders in Oyo state by the state government while describing it as a welcome development.
‘It’s a welcome development and we have been agitating for it, because apart from being the state Chairman of ACOMORAN, I am also a part of the National executive and I see what obtains in other states in terms of contributing to the revenue of the government.’
‘You know it was initially put at #200, but after we met with the governor, he agreed to reduce it to #100 and he also said it does not affect what we do in our association, which means after the #100, ACOMORAN will still collect its dues from members.’
He said the introduction of Motor Parks, although it does not include the Motorcycle riders, was a system ACOMORAN had embraced long ago as the association has various units, branches and local governments managed by separate heads.
Alh. Folaranmi also said the provision of identification cards to members is long overdue noting that the association has always requested a database of Motorcycle riders across the state to check criminality and growing insecurity.
‘In terms of security, there are other ways to ensure this if the government can invite us and we sit together to rub minds because insecurity is an issue that is paramount in the heart of this association.’
‘We have Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas and other ethnics represented in our association, but what we have done is to register them and put them under various leaders that will be accountable for them.’
‘We have however appealed to the Governor to delay the introduction of the ID cards a little longer because it will also require some amount of money from our members.’
Oyo state government recently, in a bid to check insecurity, introduced a daily fee of #200 which was later reduced to #100 for Okada riders as well as ID cards to identify riders in the state.
