Members of the Ghana Committed Drivers Association (GCDA) have strongly kicked against the legalization of the Okada business which was banned in 2012 by the then Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government as a result of the great dangers associated with its operation.
The association has, therefore, warned that all its members, who are strongly against the legalization of the Okada business that poses danger to precious lives, will vote against any political party that will make it a campaign message and goes ahead to legalize it.
The group gave the warning at a press conference on Wednesday addressed by its spokesperson Anane Frimpong.
It is the dangers associated with the commercialization of the business of motorcycle and tricycle that made the NDC government under former President John Mahama take that bold decision to ban the Okada business under the Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 (L.I. 2180).
“We believe those factors that led to the passage of L.I. 2180 by Mr. Mahama and the NDC have not changed. People are still dying; people are still sustaining various degrees of injury. Riders continue to disregard road safety regulations, and people are being robbed at gunpoint and knifepoint using Okada,” the spokesperson said, stressing that the situation now is very dire and that the lives of Ghanaians must not be risked in that manner.
The group said the Okada riders don’t respect traffic regulations and road signals and ride anyhow on the roads putting the lives of other road users at risk.
He said members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) have even called on the government to strictly enforce the ban on the Okada business to save lives since a lot of the motorcycle accident victims were dying, losing their legs, arms, brains, wealth and social life.
“The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) estimates that the chance of dying from a motorcycle crash is 10 times higher than a car,” he said, adding that based on figures released by NRSA in 2015, 2,289 motorcycles were involved in road crashes nationwide while in the first quarter about 708 road users died from 4,049 road accidents.
“The youth of this country deserve better and that is why we will urge political parties, especially the NPP and the NDC, to look for better ways of creating employment avenues for the teeming unemployed youth rather than this cruel means of engaging them,” he added.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr