The Northern Regional Police has commenced an operation to enforce Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 Legislative Instrument (LI 2180) to ensure sanity on the roads in the region.
As part of the operation, which is being carried out in collaboration with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the National Road Safety Authority, all unregistered vehicles, motorbikes and tricycles, and those riding motorbikes without wearing crash helmets, are being arrested and made to comply with the law.
Commissioner of Police (CoP) Mr Timothy Yoosa Bongah, Northern Regional Police Commander, who announced the operation at a press briefing in Tamale, said it had become necessary to protect lives and property in the region.
As part of the operation, Police Officers were detailed along the road along the Regional Police Command, and by 11 hours GMT, 344 motorbikes were arrested.
Out of the figure, 285 were not registered, and 59 of them were also not wearing crash helmets while four unregistered motorkings (tricycles for carrying loads) and one unregistered yellow-yellow (tricycle for carrying passengers) were also arrested.
Being the first day of the operation, those arrested were asked to go to DVLA to register and bring their number plates before taking their motorbikes and tricycles away. However, subsequently, all those who would be arrested, would be processed for court.
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CoP Bongah said, “We are enforcing the law because it is the regulation that before you put your motorbike or vehicle on the road, it must be registered. If it is a motorbike, you need a helmet. Our mandate is to protect lives and property. Without the helmet, you are at a greater risk. And so, we must ensure that you wear a helmet. And that is why we want everybody on a motorbike to wear the helmet.”
He said, “In this Metropolis, we have registered a good number of fatal motor accidents because they do not wear the crash helmet. We believe that this enforcement will go a long way to save lives within the region and for that matter the country.”
He said the operation would also help to protect property adding, “When motorbikes are stolen and you come to the Police Station, you cannot quote your number that your motorbike with registration number this has been stolen. So, it gives room for the thief to manipulate, and facilitate his way out, but if it is registered and the number is on it, before you remove the number, at least, somebody will spot you. And so, it will also help you the owner to keep safe your motorbike.”
He said “Another major reason to register motorbike and wear a helmet is that many criminals use the motorbike to commit crimes when it is not registered. Most of the armed robbery cases, the means they use to facilitate their movement is unregistered motorbikes.
And so, we want to ensure that within the region, you register your motorbikes and this will limit in a way the perpetration of such crimes. So, it is a way to fight crime within the metropolis.”
CoP Mr Bongah said the Regional Police Command had been to the chiefs, mosques, churches, associations amongst other stakeholders to sensitise them about the operation before its commencement today, calling for the support of all to ensure success.
