Road Safety Advocate Slams Bono Minister …Over propositions to legalise illegality

A Road Safety Advocate, Mr. Osei Kwabena has drawn the attention of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to what he terms ‘unguided utterances’ by the Bono Regional Minister, Mrs. Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, in which she suggested legalising an illegality.

Referring to the Minister’s position with regards to the operations of rickshaws, commonly called “Pragya, as reported in the Daily Graphic of Saturday, April 25, 2020, he condemned the Minister’s proposal that rickshaws should be allowed to operate in areas like Berekum, Dormaa, Wenchi and Chiraa among others.

She posited that: “While we are not condoning their illegal operations, it is a fact that in places such as Berekum, Dormaa, Wenchi and Chiraa among others, the preferred mode of transport for commuters is by tricycles,” and suggested that considerations are made to make transportation convenient for the people”.

Mr Osei Kwabena’s concern emanates from the fact that the provisions of Legislative Instrument (L. I.) 21/80 section 12 (H) restraints bicycles and tricycles for commercial purposes and that offenders are liable for prosecution.

He said it was not for the Regional Minister and the Bono Regional Co-ordinating Council to decide a preferred mode of transport for a section of the population, which the laws of the land prohibit.

The Road Safety campaigner referred to the three week lockdown directive by the President and said that was not the preferred mode of living for Ghanaians, upon which he questioned the authority she could permit an illegality under her jurisdiction, under the guise of the Minister’s so-called convenience when the Courts are not permitted.

Mr Osei Kwabena further pointed it out that much as she (Bono Minister) could not prescribe an insurance policy to cover the gullible persons and illegal riders’ activities she allegedly seeks to protect, she and the RCC lack the capacity to authorise any person(s) to engage in an illegality.

He also drew the attention of the Minister and authorities to the fact that the very “chemistry” of the tricycles makes “social distancing thereon and therein, a complete impossibility” because the length of the entire passenger seat of the tricycle is in the range of three feet which is a discrepancy to the expert advice to stay, at least, two meters from each other.

“How do you observe and practice social distancing on a three feet stretch”, Osei Kwabena queried, and advised that” if they (Minister and RCC) have nothing doing, they must not do it here”.

Meanwhile, Mr. Osei Kwabena has stressed that it is possible to do without Okada, Pragya, Aboboyaa and Mahama Camboo among others, in COVID-19 era and beyond, especially when the Juaben Traditional Council has been without these rickshaws in pre COVID-19 era.

“It’s an illegality and must be consigned to the bin of history in the interest of public health and safety,” adding that “there is no other opportune time to act than now”.

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