The Association of Motorcycle Operators in Rivers State has opposed the sale of crash helmets by the Rivers United Motor Cyclists Association.
The Chairman of AMORS, Mr Binoye Sunday, told our correspondent in a telephone interview in Port Harcourt on Monday that its members were not opposed to the use of crash helmets, but were not inclined to buy the helmets sold by RUMCA.
According to him, a crash helmet sold by RUMCA for N2,700 could be bought for N700 elesewhere.
Sunday asked the Rivers State Ministry of Transport to decentralise the sale of the helmets to save okada riders from exploitation.
Arguing that the price would be reduced if the sales were decentralised, he added that the leaders of RUMCA were not okada riders and could therefore decide to exploit them.
Sunday urged the police and the Federal Road Safety Commission to begin the enforcement of the use of crash helmets by okada riders.
He decried the use of touts by some local government councils to force riders to wear helmets, saying that his colleagues were always ready to put on crash helmets, reflective vests and to ride with caution.
The Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, Mr. Samuel Adetuyi, had earlier in the month recommended the establishment of mobile courts to try errant cyclists.
Adetuyi, who is the chairman of the state branch of the Joint Action Committee raised by the Federal Government to check the menace of cyclists, made the recommendation in a report submitted to Governor Peter Odili.
The Rivers State Government last year restricted the operations of commercial cyclists in the state capital to between 6am and 7pm daily.