The Riders and Owners of Motorcycle Association of Nigeria (ROMAN) in the FCT says plans are ongoing to issue digital identification to its members.

The national president of the association, Olusola Razaq, said this during a sensitisation meeting organised for members at Karu in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Mr Razaq said the move will go a long way to check criminality and avoid the outright ban by the federal and states governments owing to unregulated activities of commercial motorcyclists in the city centre.

He said his leadership had already engaged an ICT company that would carry out a digital image capturing of all members nationwide for proper Identification.

The president said plans were also ongoing to establish a National Regulation Act for the association from the National Assembly (NASS).

He said commercial motorcyclists’ activities are despised due to unregulated operations nationwide.

“Days are gone when Okada riders are used for political thuggery. Of course, we know that the new INEC electoral act does not give room for such anymore.

“So our efforts now is to ensure that Okada riders are well sensitised like every other Nigerian who can also live their normal lives like good citizens of this country.

“We are also negotiating with the Federal Road Safety Commission and Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) on the issue of members not getting their number plates and disobeying road rules to avoid road crashes and sudden deaths.

“We are also doing this to help millions of Nigerians get out of poverty because many families have waited for white-collar jobs endlessly.”

He argued that commercial motorcyclists had contributed to the country’s employment rate.

The chairman of ROMAN, FCT chapter, Maharazu Yahaya, said the exercise was in compliance with the strict order mandating every commercial motorcycle association in the FCT to ensure proper regulations for its members or face an outright ban.

Also speaking, the Nyanya area commander, Habila Maikeffi, advised motorcyclists to always obey road rules.

The Karu Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), Bathelomeo Agbo, urged motorcyclists to always respect the law guiding their operations.

(NAN)