The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service have impounded a total number of 344 motorcycles in the Tamale metropolis. The Northern Regional Police Command, the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) collaborated to conduct the exercise on Monday, 11th October, 2021.
The Northern Regional Police Commander, COP Timothy Bonga Yoosa at a media briefing said the figure consist of 285 unregistered motorbikes, 4 motorking tricycles, 1 yellow yellow tricycle and 59 motorbikes without crush helmets.
He said the road traffic regulations in the Tamale metropolis and the region as a whole has been bedeviled with numerous challenges for some time now necessitating the enforcement of the Road Traffic Regulation 2012 (L.I2180).
He noted the habit of people in the region using unregistered vehicles in terms of motorbikes has become rampant, explaining that some section of the public looks on the police service to curb the menace by enforcing the relevant road safety regulations in the country.
“The enforcement; as we’re human beings – sometimes, we need to put small human face in trying to enforce this regulation and that is what the command has done for some time now”
COP Bonga Yoosa disclosed the police administration has done so much sensitization to educate almost everybody in the area to understand the need to comply with the road traffic regulation.
“We have been to the Chiefs, we have been to the mosques, we have gone to the churches to sensitize the congregation, and we have been to youth associations and many more. And I want to believe that by this time about 90 percent of the people in town know the importance of registering, insuring and also wearing the crush helmets”
The Northern Regional Police Commander revealed that motorcycles of some police personnel were also arrested during the operation.
“We started within, I say within because it is within the police environment – to make sure that even our security personnel also comply with the law – so if you’re a security personnel and you have not registered, your motorbike is arrested” he explained.
COP Timothy Bonga Yoosa said this is an opportunity for the police to screen the impounded motorcycles, explaining some of these bikes could be stolen ones.
“It is time of grace! Come, pay the registration and the DVLA will establish their table here to register you, register the motorbike for you – after registration the police will release your motorbike for you”
He indicated motorists who are found culpable in the subsequent operations will be prosecuted, reiterating that the police administration will gave those arrested during this first phase of the exercise the opportunity to get their motorcycles registered as well as acquiring crush helmets to avoid sanctions.
Detecting fake numbers
The DVLA within two weeks is expected to furnish the police with a software that will enable the police check fake numbers on vehicles in the region.
According to COP Bonga, that software will determine whether a vehicle is genuinely registered or not, stating further that, “As we have started this exercise, we’re not stopping now and many people will want to have their way out by fixing fake numbers but this software will help to determine immediately whether it is genuine or fake one and we stand here to thank the DVLA for that”.
Meanwhile, Mr Mutawakil Abudulai, the Northern Regional Manager of DVLA said the enforcement of the road traffic regulation is to protect lives and properties of Ghanaians.
He said, “So if they ask you that put on your crush helmet I don’t think it is a crime; they haven’t insult anybody, they haven’t arrested anybody – all what they are saying is that, stay alive, go home alive!
He emphasized it is improper for one to incur so much to buy a motorcycle and fail to expend less than GHS300 to register it.
“And without registering you’re not the owner of that machine. Registration now shows who is the owner of that machine, so if you just go to the shop and buy it – the one who sold it to you is the owner” he explained.
