Taxi Drivers To Be Arraigned Before Court

Taxi drivers, who were arrested in the metropolis Monday, will be arraigned before court according to the Police Service for violating the Public Order Law. The cab drivers were arrested in various parts of Accra, including Abeka junction; infront of Peace FM, agitating against a new by-law by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly which demands that the drivers join or form unions for their activities to be easily regulated. They complained of already paying huge sums of monies for their road worthy certificates, insurance and other levies; this according to them, is having a toll on their finances. Speaking in an interview on Peace Midday news Monday, AMA Boss, Alfred Oko Vanderpuiye indicated that the assemblies are not coercing the drivers to join a union so that they operate within a specific locality; �they can operate anywhere�. �What we are saying is that they can operate anywhere�all we need from them is to join a union or even form a floating drivers� union as the law says�you cannot float with no regards to the law. It is a national law that everyone who operates a commercial vehicle must register with an existing or recognized group. If you don�t want to join the existing group you can form a new group and then we will register it for you�our doors are opened� he said. Speaking to Citi eye witness news Monday, Sergeant Bright kwabena Danso, Spokesperson for the Greater Accra Regional command of the Ghana Police Service indicated that the over 30 taxi drivers, who were arrested, will be arraigned before court within the week. According to him, the taxi drivers should have informed the police of their intention to demonstrate but they failed to that; �they took the law into their own hands and we cannot allow that to happen�. �The taxi drivers were demonstrating and blocking all the routes in Accra and we needed to ensure law and sanity and so the police stepped in. Currently, they have violated all the provisions of the public order act so we�ve arrested some of the drivers. For now, we are processing them for bail and they will be arraigned before the law court for violating the public order act within the week� he informed. He added that when found guilty; the taxi drivers would either be fined or imprisoned. �Everybody has the right to demonstrate but in so doing, you need to abide by the public order act,� he added.