Cab drivers in the Ga West Assembly of the Greater Accra Metropolis are heading to the Human Rights Court to commence a legal action against Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, mayor of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
According to the group, the AMA mayor has up to next Monday to reverse a directive requesting all taxi drivers to regularize their operations by joining unions or associations for effective regulation of their activities.
It may be recalled that the AMA, earlier this month, issued a directive to all floating drivers in the metropolis to compulsorily align themselves with particular lorry stations or join a transport union; a gesture taxi drivers have described as untenable.
Earlier, the Accra Regional Police Command on Monday morning swooped on demonstrating drivers for breaching the Public Order Act. About 80 of them were arrested for embarking on illegal demonstrations in protest of the new directive.
However, briefing journalists in Accra yesterday, Mary Ohenewa Afful, human rights lawyer acting for and on behalf of the cab drivers numbering over 200, reiterated the demands of the drivers, cautioning that the government had up to Monday to reverse the directive or brace up for a legal showdown in the court.
She noted that the persistent harassment of drivers by members of the Traffic Security Task Force of the AMA and extortion by officials of the Ghana Police Service was unfortunate.
In the view of the human rights lawyer, the development was unreasonable, particularly when it boarded on the lives of the drivers and their dependants.
Beyond the notice for a legal action, Ms. Ohenewa Afful wondered why Mr. Oko Vanderpuije was still in office as the AMA mayor.
She called for the immediate removal of Mr. Oko Vanderpuije, Ms. Ativor and Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, ministers of Transport and Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations respectively.
�What is annoying is that you get government officials justifying these barbaric acts,� she said.
Quoting various Articles of the 1992 Constitution, the human rights lawyer averred that any law which is inconsistent with the Constitution has no basis, for which reason she called into question the basis of the law seeking to force taxi drivers to belong to a union.
Some of the drivers who took turns to speak with DAILY GUIDE complained that the directive from the AMA would negatively affect their work and daily sales, majority of which, they claimed, went into the individual pockets of officials of the police and the AMA task force.
The Backlash
In a related development, a Labour Consultant, Charles Bawadua, has said that it is unconstitutional for the AMA to attempt to force all taxi drivers to register and regularize their activities with the various transport unions in the capital.
According to him, the introduction of the new AMA by-law which coerces the drivers to join unions against their will was a violation of the drivers� fundamental human rights guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution.
Though the Mayor of Accra had defended the move which he claimed would check security and minimize unruly behaviour on the part of the drivers, Mr. Bawadua disagreed insisting that the action by the Assembly �may not be enough to check security and good behaviour�.
The labour expert and lawyer have therefore entreated the drivers to go to court and have the law quashed.
�The drivers should fight it [by-law] in court [because], it is a breach of their fundamental human rights,� Mr. Bawadua stated.
He, however, urged the drivers to use due process to register their displeasure at the development while advising the AMA to adopt a persuasive approach to get the drivers to register with the transport union if the authorities believed that was necessary.
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