The Joint Action Front, on Monday, December 10, planned to lead a procession of aggrieved motorcycle operators who converged at the Nigeria Labour Congress headquarters in Lagos to embark on protest but was thwarted by team of armed policemen who barricaded road junctions, grounding traffic on the Yaba-Ojuelegba road link.
In an attempt to stop the protest, they had earlier whisked away four men for sharing leaflets among the gathering crowd. The number of protesters however continued to swell, and the organized movement of JAF began the rally from the NLC building. The police, conscious that the rally would turn huge, as other motorbike operators were reportedly waiting at other road junctions to join in, inched towards leaders of the procession to negotiate peace.
As it became apparent that the police team might not be able to handle the growing crowd, the police barricaded the road with one of their vans. Protesters however seized the road and sat on it until several pleas got JAF leadership to lead the protesters back to the NLC building for an invitation to discussion the matter of the ban on motorcycles with State officials.
JAF leadership has insisted that motorbikes must be permitted to return to commercial operations, arguing that if a BRT lane could be dedicated for Lagbus, the same option would work for bikes to operate safely, in opposition to creating mega unemployment in the guise of creating a mega city.
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