Repressive road safety controls suppressed in Meme

The Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme, David Koulbout Aman, has banned repressive road safety campaigns on the streets of Kumba and the entire Division by officials of the Ministry of Transport.

The SDO gave the verbal instructions recently, while handing over 99 Category A drivers’ licenses to commercial bike riders in Kumba.

According to the SDO, officials of the Divisional Delegation of Transport should review their approach of checking documents, especially those of bike riders, given the achievements recorded in the pilot phase of the programme that has seen some bike riders obtain drivers’ licenses at a lower cost, without any misunderstandings.

Koulbout urged the Delegate of Transport to adopt an aggressive sensitisation policy, especially among the bikers after which controls can then resume around the metropolis.

The SDO said he was not in support of the idea of grounding hundreds of bikes, from which many earn their living, at the Kumba City Council as has been the case in the past.

He said such situations, if not properly handled, can escalate into a conflict. The SDO further asserted that the officials in charge must do all in their ability to get the message across effectively, before thinking of clamping down on those who lack the required documents.

Quizzed on the observations made by the SDO, the Divisional Delegate of Transport, Isaiah Njilah Tata, told reporters that the SDO was telling them not to be too hard on the bikers. He said the administrator was not against the exercise, rather, he was urging them to exercise caution.

Before now, the Delegate, who initiated the project and got the approval of the Minister of Transport, said the training of bikers will reduce the number of road accidents recorded on the highway on daily basis. Njilah indicated that the Category A drivers’ licenses qualify owners to ride on the highway.

The Delegate also disclosed that, going by Government texts, it would have cost the beneficiaries FCFA 150,000 to procure the licenses, but thanks to Government interest, the bike riders spent FCFA 30,000 to get the document after succeeding in the examinations supervised by officials of the Ministry of Transport last November 2014.

Initially, the Delegate went on, some 1,256 bikers applied, while 152 successfully went through the training exercise. In the final examination, 133 passed with only 110 of them completing their money for the processing of the licenses. Njilah further disclosed that, but for some errors in the names of the recipients, all 110 candidates would have collected their licenses.

With the success recorded in the project, the Transport Delegate announced that some 33 new applicants are set for the next session of the training.

Accompanied in the exercise by the Regional Delegate of Transport for the Southwest, Ivo Vevanje, the Meme Transport Delegate said the Government is showing keen interest in the pilot phase of the project so that, if successful, it will be replicated nationwide to restore order in the commercial bike sector and assuage the loss of human lives through recurrent road accidents.