Ashaiman residents protest carnage on roads

About 300 people, including students, market women and the chief of Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region yesterday embarked on a peaceful demonstration against the carnage on Ashaiman roads by motorbike riders.

The demonstrators, who were led by the Chief of Ashaiman, Nii Annang Adzor, displayed placards some of which read, "Don’t combine tramadol with riding," "Ashaiman can't continue to lose innocent lives through motor accidents," "Ashaiman motorbike riders, observe road signs," "Reduce speed in Ashaiman now," and "Ashaiman Police,
prosecute lawless riders."

They marched through the principal streets and finally converged on the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly where they presented their petition to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Albert Boakye Okyere.

Petition

Among grievances contained in the petition were that, most motorbike riders in the area flouted road safety regulations with impunity. Apart from the blaring of horns, they also ignored traffic lights, rode without crash helmets and registered number plates.

"This is a very disturbing development. The rising cases of bags and mobile phone snatching has been on the ascendancy for which reason necessary mechanisms have to be put in place to reverse the trend," Nii Adzor said.

Response

The MCE observed that one of the ways to stop the menace was for people who patronised ‘Okada’ to put a stop to it to make the business unattractive.

“We advise the people of Ashaiman not to patronise okada because both the rider and the pillion rider would be disobeying the laws,” he stated.

Appeal

The Ashaiman Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Peter Gyimah, appealed to those who bought motorbikes for commercial purposes todesist from the practice since the police would not accept their pleas when the okada operators were arrested.