Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, Governs Kwame Agbodza has called for better implementation of the ban on tricycle usage in the country following the Greater Accra Regional Minister’s decision to ban tricycles on highways.
According to him, it will be “chaotic” if regional ministers are allowed to implement their own rule on how roads are used in the country.
Mr Agbodza revealed that the regional assembly has also gotten involved in the issue which doesn’t fall within its responsibility.
“The legislative power of the country only resides in Parliament under Article 93(2). What had been given to the local authority to do is not envisaged to be parent law makers, they are to make bye-laws”.
Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza
Mr Agbodza explained that with the Greater Accra minister, Henry Quartey’s quest to expunge tricycles from highways, several regional ministers will take cue from his example, leading to chaos in the country.
“If you don’t take time, the Greater Accra Regional Minister and Assemblies will make rules as to how certain roads should be used in Accra. Volta Regional Minister will make laws on how certain roads should be used in Volta Region. By the time we finish the 16 regions, if you are to drive from Accra to Paga, you’d have to understand the various restrictions and limitations on every road. It will be chaos”.
Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza
The Adaklu legislator also noted that calls for a ban on tricycles have not been well established. As such, he is of the opinion that okada may subsequently be banned going forward.
Tricycles cause limited road crashes
Mr Agbodza asserted that statistics revealed that many lives in the country have been lost to vehicular crashes on the road as compared to tricycles.
“Far more people die in vehicular accidents than on motorbikes and everything. We know that. Nobody should make it look like Okada or aboboyaas are the major causes of accidents anywhere”.
Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza
Irrespective of his dislike for the law banning tricycles on the highway, effective November 1, Mr Agbodza recognized that the Regional Minister acted in good faith. He expressed the need for the directive to be relooked at in order to avert difficulty in its implementation.
He emphasized that “we need to change the law”.
“If this is what the Regional Minister and assembly want to do, let them package this thing, send it through the Ministry of Transport together with National Roads Safety Authority. It will be brought back to Parliament for us to see holistically what we can do”.
Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza
Earlier, Mr Agbodza during a press conference announced the ban set to take effect on November 1, has no legal backing. Addressing the media, he revealed that the intervention was also misplaced because the tricycles exist as a result of government’s failure.
The Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, announced the ban as part of making the roads safer and ensuring law and order in the national capital. As part of the concerns has been the commute of these tricycles from Accra to Tema to dump refuse at the Kpone landfill site.
Following this, Mr Agbodza noted the reason they are doing that is because that is where [Tema] the treatment plant is.
“We don’t have enough treatment plants within Accra itself. If you see them on the highway going to Tema, it is simply because there is no other way they can dump it”.
Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza
