By Amos Aar
COMMERCIAL motorcyclists popularly known as okada riders in Benue State have appealed to Governor Hyacinth Alia to reduce the high cost of the motorcycles under the hire purchase scheme following the inauguration on May 28, 2024 through the state-owned firm, Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC) Limited, with a promise to make the motorcycles accessible and affordable in order to empower youths and alleviate their suffering.
An Okada rider who lost his motorcycle on June 12, 2024 at IBB Square, Makurdi during Democracy Day celebration said he had approached BIPC to key into the BIPC’s hire purchase scheme to enable him survive with his five-member family, said the reality is not as promised by the governor.
The okada rider, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that BIPC had referred him to the office of Benue Motorcycle Hirers Association which was handling the business for the company. According to him, the conditions given him at the Okada office were tougher than he could imagine.
“They said I should deposit N350,000 to BIPC account. Then, when they give me bike, I will be paying N25,000 on a weekly basis while the total amount to be paid for the hire purchase motorcycle is one million, two hundred and fifty thousand naira (N1.250 million). They also asked me to bring a guarantor who must be a high-ranking public servant”, he said.
Our reporter corroborated from BIPC the assertion of the okada rider last Thursday when he visited BIPC office where a staff of the company told him that “the whole thing is under Alia riders, okada, and you must belong to Alia APC”.
He then moved on to the office of the motorcycle hirers association for further inquiry where he was discouraged by a staff who attended to him on the desk.
“That BIPC scheme is difficult. So, we don’t advise people to venture into it. We are hoping for the ones the governor has promised us”, the Okada officer said.
When contacted on phone on Friday to find out if the Benue State Government has a different motorcycle scheme apart from that of the BIPC, the Commissioner of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Manasseh Alumo Orpin, said he was not aware of anything like that.
Asked while the BIPC hire purchase motorcycles which he personally commissioned on behalf of the governor and assured the public of its affordability are now as costly as those given out by individuals and private companies, Orpin said: “I only commissioned the motorcycles for BIPC. So, you will have to go to BIPC”.
When contacted via WhatsApp to seek clarification if the BIPC hire purchase scheme was different from the one the Managing Director of the company and the aforementioned commissioner had promised during the commissioning to make it affordable, a BIPC official who did not want his name mentioned for lack of authority, said the company could not speak for the government, adding that the scheme they launched was different.
“We can’t speak for Benue State Government. The scheme we launched is different from what the state government is doing”, he said.
However, when asked further to explain how the BIPC scheme was different from what it was promised to be, the company’s official no longer responded.
