Governor Godwin Obaseki has declared that Okada (commercial motorcycles) remain banned in Benin City as he pledged to sustain partnership with security agencies in Edo to improve the security of lives and property.

The governor, while reviewing the security situation on Monday disclosed that the ban on motorcycles in the Benin metropolis was still in force.

The review came after a joint security meeting with representatives of various security agencies.

“The ban on motorcycles in the main city is still in force. We only allowed tricycles in and around semi-urban areas. Motorcycles can still be used in rural areas where the road network is not as good as that of the city and that is the position in the state today,” explained Mr Obaseki. “The bulk of the accidents that we are seeing is not from the city. We are witnessing them on the federal roads, particularly the Ovia axis and around the Agbede and Ewu area.”

The governor added that those “are the main areas where we experience accidents” because the roads are not motorable.

“I am glad to inform you that the security situation in Edo state continues to be stable. This month we saw a slight increase in the number of security incidents reported from about 118 in April to about 125 in May,” added Mr Obaseki.

The Edo governor noted that after his administration did analysis of May crashes, it discovered “a significant increase in vehicular accidents.”

“These accidents are mainly attributed to bad federal roads, particularly in the Ovia axis of the state, and in the Agbede axis where we recorded a number of losses of lives. We also noticed that there was a slight increase in reported drug cases. Kidnapping cases were stable for the month,” explained the governor. “We also witnessed a slight increase in armed robbery, which was not totally unconnected with political activities during the period. The security situation in the state is fair.”

(NAN)