The Enugu State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill,banning the use of motorcycles within Enugu Capital territory, Enugu North, Enugu South and Enugu East Local Government Areas.

According to the bill, any person who operates motorcycle in contravention of section 3 of the bill is guilty of an offence and on conviction shall be liable to one year imprisonment without an option of fine.

The bill, however, empowers the commissioner for transport to extend the ban to any other part of the state, if need be.

The bill, cited as the `Operation of Motorcycles Prohibition Law, is supposed to take effective on July 3, 2012.

The executive bill, presented at the floor of the assembly was read for the first, second and third time and was unanimously supported by all legislators present.

Opening debate on the bill, the Leader of the house, Mr Sunday Ude-Okoye, (PDP-Awgu North) said it was a wonderful bill, aimed at curbing criminal activities being perpetrated in Enugu State using motorcycles.

``Enugu State is no longer at ease as some of the motorcycle riders have ceased to use it for the genuine purpose of transportation,” he said.

According to him, the riders of such motorcycles have been using the motorcycles for negative purposes such as kidnapping, handbag snatching, killings, spying bank customers among others.

He lamented that the advent of motorcycle as means of transportation had contributed to the dearth of apprentice, artisans and other professional trades.

He observed that many youths had turned their attention to ridding commercial motorcycle as easy means of getting money.

Ude-Okoye also regretted that the reckless driving by some of the riders had exposed them to increased accidents and health hazards.

The deputy leader, Mr John-Kelvin Ukuta (PDP-Uzo Uwani), expressed optimism that the ban would make live more meaningful and safer for Enugu residents.

He said that relevant Assembly committees would liaise with the executive arm of government to mitigate the impact of the ban on both commuters and riders.

Ukuta said that because of the urgency of the situation, the assembly suspended some of the House rules to allow members pass the bill without holding a public hearing.

All the legislators, who spoke on the bill supported its passage, saying that the development showed that the State Government was sensitive to the security challenge confronting the people.

Ruling on the session, the Speaker, Mr Eugene Odo, said that security incidents in the last two weeks necessitated the passage of the bill.

Odo noted that after passing the bill for the use of motorcycles as means of transportation to create employment, the aim of the approval had been defeated.

``We are not in any way trying to describe okada riders as criminals but they were instrumental to 90 per cent of crimes in Enugu State.

``There are genuine ones amongst them, what we are proscribing is not the riders but the motorcycles. Beyond that, okada riding is no business,” he said.

He observed that most of the riders had previously been into other businesses which failed and later took to okada riding as an alternative.

The speaker appealed to the public to understand the rationale behind the ban