The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Hon. Eric Tetteh on Thursday, the 6th of January 2022 together with the Municipal Coordinating Director (MCD), Mr. Eric Hini and District Police Commander, Andrews Anyani met with the leadership of the Somanya Drivers’ Unions comprising of the GPRTU, Corporative and Global Millennium Union.

The meeting which took place at the Akutunya Lorry Station was to engage the Drivers’ Unions for their corporation to bring sanity on the major roads within Somanya, the Municipal capital.

In his address, Hon. Eric Tetteh acknowledged the presence of the leaders and indicated that Yilo Krobo can only be developed by the people of Yilo as he again shared his vision for the Municipality in four (4) key areas that include; sanitation, discipline, infrastructure development and employment and disclosed that he had earlier visited various institutions and some groups in the municipality to introduce himself as the MCE after his confirmation by the Assembly Members.

The MCE also indicated that he had earlier visited the drivers’ union and non-union drivers groups that operate from the Roundabout in Somanya, had discussions with them and informed them about the Assembly’s intention to strictly enforce the directive of “no parking and no loading” at the Roundabout and indicated that the enforcement of this directive began Monday, the 3rd January 2022. This directive, as the MCE indicated, had incurred the displeasure of some drivers as some drivers who failed to comply were arrested by the police.

Hon. Tetteh however stressed, that the welfare and development of Yilo was paramount to any individual’s political interest and cautioned individuals to eschew partisan politics and adhere to the directive because the directive was not politically driven initiative and added, that the laws would be enforced against all persons who failed to comply with the directive irrespective of their political affiliation.

Hon. Tetteh also disclosed, that loading of vehicles at an undesignated or unauthorized places would attract a fine of Ghc300.00 and the fines would be used to address the concerns of the drivers’ themselves. The ‘no parking and no loading’ directive according to the MCE would stretch from “Doyitsom to Trom Junction” and traders and private road users prohibited to park their vehicles on both sides of the road stretching from Mt.Mary junction to Akutunya Station. Individuals who disregard these directives would be punished and this directive or initiative would be enforced by a special task-force that would be formed.

Hon. Eric Tetteh used the opportunity to indicate that the general public would be educated on the payment of property rates by the Municipal Assembly and also admonished individuals who built without permit to visit the Assembly and ratify same by paying the appropriate fees.

On his part, the Somanya District Police Commander, Supt. Andrews Anyani disclosed that some members of the drivers’ union were not supporting their course and indicated that all stakeholders need to come on board to make the implementation of this initiative a success. Supt. Anyani therefore assured the MCE that the police would work tirelessly in support of this initiative and individuals who tried to compromise some police officers would be held responsible and added that the Barrier at the Assembly Junction would be made functional henceforth.

Some leaders of the drivers’ union spoke on behalf of their colleagues. The Somanya Drivers Union for instance agreed to close at 5pm to pave way for the non-union drivers to load their vehicles at the station. However, they indicated that they would need to get the particulars of these non-union drivers to be able to identify them for obvious security reason and safety of passengers as they also indicated that the Union has a task-force but currently dormant and promised to revamp it to assist the process. Again, they said the drivers’ union used to have a representative at the Assembly and they pleaded with the MCE to help restore their representation as they commended the MCE for meeting the Union to address their concerns.

Hon. J.T Adamptey (a.k.a Dendenden), Assembly Member for Sawer Electoral Area on his part disclosed, that it was resolved that taxi drivers should load at the Roundabout and Trotro drivers should load at the Main station and pleaded with Trotro drivers to adhere to this directive as he also entreated the drivers to regularly pay for their parking tickets at a cost of Ghc2.00 as he cautioned, that non-compliance would attract a fine of Three Hundred Ghana Cedis (Ghc300.00).

In conclusion, the MCE stated that all the concerns of the drivers will be addressed in due time and thanked them for honouring the meeting.