Last Sunday, many motorists were inconvenienced at Accra Newtown by the now common unauthorised blocking of roads in some parts of the nation’s capital.
Some areas are noted for such acts of indiscipline and to think that these are hardly stopped by law enforcement personnel beats imagination.
If there are parts of Accra’s road network which should be spared the incessant blocking of such accesses, it is the main Kotobabi Police Station stretch as it heads towards the Kokomlemle traffic intersection.
Last Sunday, this road was blocked because of a family or group celebrating a wedding activity. It commenced from after 3pm and proceeded into the night. None of those inconvenienced by the act of indiscipline even bothered to call in the Police perhaps, they found it unproductive.
We wonder how the Kotobabi Police Station or the Nima Divisional headquarters would have reacted had a report been made to them.
We can risk vouching it that nobody reported the road closure to the law enforcement personnel. We can also say that the Police unit in whose jurisdiction the breach took place noticed the closure.
We appreciate the enormity of the work of the Police but hasten to add that this fact notwithstanding, law enforcement personnel should be able to intervene in such acts of indiscipline which has become commonplace in some parts of Accra.
One of the dangers posed by the recklessness on the part of community residents is that in the case of emergencies as in fire outbreaks or patients requiring immediate transportation to a medical facility, such nuisances constitute avoidable stumbling blocks.
While some organisers would erect flimsy structures such as broken tables or concrete blocks to warn oncoming traffic, others simply ignore such protocols.
The Sunday under review also witnessed the road linking the Caprice areas as the road meanders towards the main Newtown road mentioned earlier around the GCB Bank Limited, blocked for a funeral.
The situation, we must state, was chaotic. Motorists and even pedestrians would continue to encounter such breaches until the public support the Police to restore decency in the manner we abuse our road networks with closures.
It is time we appreciated the importance of some roads and therefore avoid closing them with the level of impunity as being exhibited.
We cannot continue living like this; it is as though there are no laws to guide our activities.
We bet that when the law enforcement personnel descend upon those who unilaterally block roads, confrontational scenes would erupt. But the law must be applicable. Period.