Tema, Sept. 06, GNA – Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) within the Greater Accra Region are to gazette some bye-laws that are geared towards regularizing the operations of okada, pragia, and aboboyaaa within their jurisdiction.
The said bye-laws are the initiative of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, to ensure that the nuisance often created by operators of such motor vehicles were taken care of.
Mr Joseph Kwesi Gbeze, Presiding Member for the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly (KKMA), disclosed this at the Ghana News Agency and Tema Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) Road Safety Campaign platform.
The Campaign was aimed at creating continuous awareness on road safety regulations for all road users including drivers, pedestrians, stakeholders, among others and their responsibilities.
Mr Gbeze said the city guards of the Assembly as well as the MTTD were often outsmarted by riders of such motor bikes and tricycles turned public transport against the laws of the country.
He disclosed that “the difficulty that City Guards are having is that any time they apprehend them they deny using it for commercial purposes and rather claim their pillion riders and passengers are their relatives making it hard for the enforcement of the laws as it is not easy to prove that they are using it for commercial purposes”.
He said just like the commercial vehicles whose operations are regulated and permit given to them by the Assembly, the motorbikes and tricycles would also be managed same by the Assemblies’ bye-laws after the gazette was done.
The PM said permit for commercial vehicles to operate within the Municipality was required to be renewed annually, saying however that some opted for quarterly renewal which was granted.
Mr Gbeze therefore commended the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office for the initiative to educate the public on the need to stand against road accidents.
He also commended DCOP Barima Tweneboah Sasraku II, Tema Regional Police Commander; Chief Superintendent William Asante, the Regional MTTD Command and Mr Solomon Tettey Appiah, Kpone Katamanso Municipal Chief Executive for their commitment towards enforcing road safety rules.
MTTD accident data for the first half of the year indicates that out of a total of 637 road crashes 445 were private vehicles. In the first quarter out of 344 road crashes private vehicles recorded 248 and in the second quarter out of 293 crashes private vehicles recorded 197.
In the first quarter 99 motorcycles were involved in accidents; while in the second quarter the number was 83.
GNA