Ga East Assembly reasons with drivers

Daily Graphic (Pg 23) Thurs, July 22/10

Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Dome Zonal Council of the Ga East Municipal Assembly have suspended a decision to implement a ‘no parking’ bye-law on the Atomic to St John’s route which was aimed at bringing sanity on that route.
The authorities had to rescind their decision after hundreds of drivers and their mates from the early hours of last Monday morning when the ban was to be enforced, began demonstrating against the decision by not allowing any Urvan bus to work on that stretch of road for well over eight hours.
The situation caused chaos as passengers had to find alternative means of getting to their destination while the already bad traffic situation in that part of the area was worsened as some drivers resisted the demonstrators from including them in their exercise.
It took the intervention of the Ga East District Commander of Police, DSP Ameyaw Afriyie to calm tempers down after he had held a meeting with the leaders of the four major transport unions operating in the area, the Ga East District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Ekow Sackey and the executive of the district council.
The transport unions were the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Progressive Transport Owners Association PROTOA, Co-operative Transport and Tiger Transport Association.
To help salvage the situation, the DCE also tasked a five-member committee headed by the District Commander of Police to address the concerns of the drivers whose main claim was that the distance between the earmarked bus stops was too long and therefore, they would not comply.
The committee, which was expected to present its report to the assembly last Tuesday morning together with leaders of the various union, some drivers and their mates, have so far earmarked new stops which they would present to the DCE.
Speaking to DSP Afriyie after the meeting, he said the council had been asked to suspend the bye-law and arrange for a meeting between all the parties coming Sunday where they would be briefed on the new demarcation and the necessary punitive measures that would taken any driver who flaunt the bye-law.
The Zonal Council Chairman, Mr Sampson Ato Ampah, also in an interview denied claims by the drivers that the council’s task force was charging GH¢50 for wrongful parking and picking of passengers.
According to him, the council earmarked the designated bus stop about a month ago and had since been educating the drivers and their mates to ensure that they only pick and alight passengers at the assigned bus stops.
He said the decision to implement the bye-law was communicated to them last Sunday at a meeting which was expected to be attended by all stakeholders.
However, he said before they could implement their decision, he had a call at 5.30 am that some organised drivers and their mates were preventing others to work on the route as they did not want to comply with the council’s bye-law.
This, he said, resulted in a clash between the council’s task force some of whom had to use force to bring the situation under control, and in the process, some drivers and their mates were assaulted and were asked to go to the hospital for treatment at the expense of the council.
Speaking to some of the drivers and their mates, they said the council was noted for forcing decision down their throat.
They explained that although at the meeting on Sunday they opposed the ear-marked bus stop, the council executive refused to listen to them, adding that a similar case was the charge of a daily fee of GH¢3 which they were currently paying, but they had since its inception some months ago complained that it was too much and needed to be reviewed.