Tricycle riders block Kumasi roads to protest ban

By Muyid Deen Suleman

Kumasi Aug. 02, GNA – Members of the Pragyia(Tricycle) Workers Association of Ghana, on Wednesday morning, blocked the main Suame-Roundabout to Kejetia route in Kumasi in protest of restrictions on their movement, imposed by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).

The blockade resulted in heavy vehicular traffic on the road which served as the main entry point to Kejetia and Adum by drivers and commuters coming from Suame and Tafo directions to Kumasi.

It took the police from the Suame Division a hectic time to control the teeming crowd of protesters and their motorcycles.

The KMA had announced a ban on their movement to the main central business of Adum and Kejetia, effective August 01, 2023

The restrictions, according to the Assembly, are to help ease congestion created on the streets by the riders and the associated accidents which at times resulted in fatalities.

According to some of the riders who spoke to the Ghana News Agency, the decision by the Assembly was an attempt to deprive them of their livelihoods.

They said they were not responsible for the heavy vehicular traffic in the main central business district of Kumasi, but rather, it was as a result of the construction of the new Kejetia market by the Assembly.

According to them, the ban would only compound the tough economic situation in which they found themselves in the country.

GNA