Akporkploe (VR), March 12, GNA – Commercial motor riders in border communities in the Ketu South Municipality have bemoaned the negative effects of the continuous border closure on their activities.
They said the directive, which has been in force for almost a year, had led to a drastic decline in their daily incomes.
Ghana’s land borders have remained shut to human traffic from midnight of March 22, 2020, as part of measures President Nana Akufo-Addo outlined to contain and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
But some motor riders, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency during a visit to some of the border communities said the border closure brought nothing good except literally forcing them out of their jobs.
Mr Godwin Agbagu, a member of Aflao Police Station Motor Riders, said patronage had reduced since the border closure.
“My colleagues come to work, park their motorbikes and chat among themselves for the better part of the day due to non-patronage,” he said.
“Since the directive, we hardly get passengers because our work booms when people travel across the border. And this time around, when we carry people on our bike, the Immigration people can just chase you and arrest the people.
When this happens, you may not even get a pesewa and so, you will just ride and come back empty-handed. Meanwhile, you need to get fuel for the bike among others. We park our motorbikes and wait for passengers.”
At Akporkploe, Mr Yabudu Agorbia, a motor rider and father of five, said, “I came to the station here around 4 am and it’s now 11 am. I went for just a trip from the border to Aflao and got GH¢2.00. And because travellers spend money on both sides of the border to cross, some are left with nothing and so, forced to walk all this distance to Aflao. If we don’t do this work, which one is there? We’re suffering.”
GNA