As part of Police Action Against Rider Indiscipline “Operation PAARI”, which seeks to increase compliance of road traffic laws by motor riders, the police has trained 104 civilian motor riders as certified riding ambassadors.
The riders were drawn from the Ghana courier service regulation body in Accra and Tema.
At an official inauguration, the Director General of the Motor Traffic and Transport Directorate, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Felix Fosu Agyeman, said this project is one of the initiatives of the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, to reduce road crashes involving motorbikes which often leads to serious injuries and deaths.
He said the initiative is to sensitise the riding public on the need to comply with road traffic rules and regulations.
“The inauguration ceremony is the first in series and will be conducted in all the regions as the programme unfolds,” he stated, adding that, the dispatched riders upon their selection were vetted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) before they were taken through an orientation exercise in the general overview of the concept, ethics customer care, road traffic regulations, defensive riding among other subjects.
“This orientation exercise has sharpened up the skills of the riders towards the achievement of the goals of the project,” he pointed out.
DCOP Agyeman urged the certified police riding ambassadors to propagate the road safety messages to their fellow riders to comply with traffic rules and regulations.
“You are to set examples of road discipline for other riders to emulate and to stop under the command of red lights and police hand signals.
“The police riding ambassadors are also to serve as a link for providing information and intelligence to the police under the ongoing police action against rider indiscipline,” he added.
Also present at the inauguration were members of the Police Management Board and other senior police officers.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey