MTTU Boss Challenge Minister Over Okada

The Commanding Officer of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Angwubutoge Awuni has literally challenged the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, aka the Lion, on the latter�s promise to breach the recently promulgated Road Traffic Regulation banning the operations of commuter motorcycles known as Okada and the use of mobile devices by motorists while behind the steering wheels. The Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 (L.I. 2180), which came into force after 21 parliamentary sitting days on Wednesday, July 4, 2012, has now made it illegal for drivers to use mobile phones to make or receive calls, send or receive messages or access the internet while driving as well as banning of Okada. In a subtle reaction to the minister�s standoff with the LI when he assured the commercial motorcyclists that he would not allow the law to be applied in the Greater Accra region, ACP Awuni said �I would enforce the law especially since a law has been passed in that regard.� His remark is a direct response to the Greater Accra Regional Minister Afotey Agbo�s defiant position that the recently promulgated LI on Okada and others such as the use of mobile phones by motorists will not be applicable in the Greater Accra region. Many, who heard the minister�s remarks when he addressed the cyclists found it not only distasteful especially coming from a government appointee and an MP but populist. ACP Awuni, known for his strict application of the law regardless of whose ox is gored, spoke to Daily Guide reluctantly in reaction to the minister�s bluff. Laws, he said, are enacted to be enforced otherwise they would lose their importance and so in this regard he would enforce it as required by the law. �Parliament has passed a law and MTTU personnel will enforce it,� he said, explaining that he will be in Bolgatanga on 24th July 2012 for an education programme on the implication of the recently promulgated law. The Bolga engagements will be replicated in the regional capitals with a view to obviating confrontations between the police and the people they are supposed to protect. He advised those who are not comfortable with the law to go back to Parliament and change it. �The law will definitely be enforced. If anybody is not comfortable with the law, let them go back to Parliament and change it. A law is useless if it is not enforced,� he said. An LI is now operational which outlaws the commercialization of motorcycle commuters and the use of mobile phone devices while behind the steering wheels. Before the promulgation of the LI, some motorists challenged the police over the absence of a backing law to support them. When the regional minister addressed a section of the Okada operators last week at Ashaiman, he condemned the promulgation of the law in which his party played a prominent role. Someone who heard the minister throw a challenge to law enforcement agents quizzed, �What can the minister do when the MTTU Commanding Officer orders his men to go and arrest Okada operators?� Mr. Afotey Agbo�s complaint that government has failed to provide jobs for the young men to justify the operation of Okada has been described as an outrageous disagreement with a law whose passage he partook in. On 4th July 2012 Legislative Instrument (Road Traffic Regulation, 2012, LI 2180) placed before Parliament by the Transport Minister was passed.