Okada man

 There are currently over 2 million registered commercial motor riders, popularly known as ‘Okada riders’ operating in the country across all 16 regions; even the remotest part of the country.

That huge number notwithstand­ing, they have been unsuccessful in courting support from the public to get the appropriate Act of Parliament to legalise their activities.

The national Spokesperson for the Okada Riders Association of Ghana (ORAG), Mr Solomon Akpanaba, told The Spectator, that remains a major headache for the association.

“We provide an essential service that makes it possible for people to move from one place to the other to carry out their activities. In so doing, we also contribute to Ghana’s socioeconomic growth but sadly, the public has not backed our calls to legalise our operations.”

Mr Akpanaba told The Spectator in an interview that Okada riding had to a large extent helped to reduce youth unemployment cases and believes that it was time a serious consideration was giving to it by government to make their profession legal.

He said instead of quickly accusing them of being reckless on the road and being a threat to road safety, the authorities should rather put mea­sures in place to train them to ride safely and observe the road signs.

The national Spokesperson said currently, although there were un­countable number of driving schools, no effort was being made to get a school with certified instructors to train motor riders.

He said having riding schools with certified instructors would be helpful in this regard, explaining that the riders would therefore be licensed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Au­thority (DVLA) recommendation from such instructors.

He said at the moment, the train­ing of the riders remains the respon­sibility of the ORAG.

According to him, training and regulating their activities could deal with the school of thought that their members also use their cycles to en­gage in robbery because every single member can be tracked and their activities monitored.

“We also need the motorbikes registration numbers designed to fit commercial purposes so that the dif­ference between a commercial and non-commercial motor riders will be distinctive,” he explained.

He said if they were given numbers based on their locations, it would even make it easier for the associa­tion, its members and the public to monitor them to do what is right.

He disclosed that even though they were compelled to insure their motorbikes, whenever they were in­volved in an accident, they were told by insurance companies that they do not qualify for insurance benefits due to the position of the law on com­mercial riding.

Mr Akpanaba said Okada riding had come to stay based on the assess­ment of the invaluable services they provide and so the time has come for the state to regularise them instead of attempting to scrape them off.

 From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Ashaiman