At Fagbewesa Junction, Olaiya area and Alekunwodo area of Osogbo, capital of Osun State, ugly activities of officials of the Osun State Government Transport Management System who issue tickets to commercial motorcycle operators, popularly known as Okada riders, have made riders and innocent commuters to dread the routes.

Findings by The Guardian revealed that many Okada men and their passengers have been carrying scars and pains that were inflicted on them by these officials who let all hell lose in a bid to force okada riders to pay for tickets.

Our correspondent, on Tuesday, witnessed one of the high-handedness and harassment that herald the issuance of tickets.

Fierce-looking men who clinched booklets of tickets had stationed themselves on the Fagbewesa Junction at Olaiya Area in Osogbo, busy stopping motorcycles in a manner capable of causing accidents and issuing tickets to them.

While this was ongoing, an Okada rider who wore a fez cap, alongside his female passenger was approaching the junction from Jaleyemi area.

One of the ticketers, simply identified as Tobiloba, suddenly jumped in front of the Okada man while in motion and pulled off his fez cap. Because the cap was tightly worn, it could not remove, thus forcing the Okada man to lose control of the motorcycle.

Both the rider and passenger, a young lady who had gone to purchase food at one of the restaurants at Jaleyemi area, fell down from the bike.

The passenger had passed out immediately before traders around rushed into the scene, carried her out of the road and revived her. After gaining consciousness, she had sustained injuries on her hands and some other parts of her body.

The okada man equally had cuts on his leg.

Without remorse, Tobiloba and his boys kept raining slaps on the Okada rider and blaming him for the accident, claiming he was smelling of alcohol.

When people gathered and started tongue-lashing the ticketers, they realised their mistakes and apologised to the passenger and paid for her food which they threw away.

At the scene of the Fagbewesa incident, other eyewitnesses revealed how the harassment and excesses of the transport officials have caused many people pain and scars in the areas.

“Once an Okada man is taking me to Olaiya, I ask him to stop me before getting to where these boys are because they are brutal and inhumane in their approach.

“No one says they should not issue tickets to Okada riders but they should be civil in the discharge of their duties. Jumping into a moving motorcycle, attacking riders and passengers are not the way to make people collect these tickets,” a trader in Osogbo, simply identified as Anthony, told our correspondent.

Another business owner in the Olaiya area who did not want to be named, revealed how a nursing mother and her baby was made to fall off a bike when the ticketers pushed Okada man who was in motion.

“The woman and her newly born baby fell off the bike after they pushed the Okada man. We thank God there was no vehicle approaching that time, it would have been more disastrous. I hope the state government through the Ministry of Transportation do something urgent to checkmate the excesses of these transport officials,” he said.

Other transporters have lamented the harassment by some officials of the state transport management system. Many Okada riders accused the officials of treating them rudely in an attempt to issue tickets to them.

They noted that the officials behave like thugs, a situation that should not be witnessed from individuals working for an organised body.

According to the transporters, the officials were fond of harassing them and their passengers whenever they wanted to give out tickets.

Most atimes, they revealed that the officials engage in physical combat with Okada riders and in the process damage their motorcycles and injure them.

Stakeholders have, therefore, called on the state government and leadership of the state transport management system to rein in on their officials and end the menace.