Drivers in the Ashaiman Municipality have embarked on a demonstration exercise to protest a directive issued by the Driver and Vehicular Licensing Authority (DVLA) for all vehicles to have seat belts.
The DVLA is asking drivers to fix seat belts in their vehicles and also renew their registration numbers every quarter.
The drivers in Ashaiman are also demonstrating over what they say are the deplorable nature of their roads.
Citi News, Elvis Washington reported that the situation has left passengers including school children and workers stranded.
He said the drivers have also blocked some roads of Ashaiman.
Meanwhile some unionized taxi drivers within the Accra Metropolis have also begun a sit down strike over what they described as unfair treatment from the DVLA.
The drivers are accusing officials of the DVLA of extortion which they say is making life unbearable for them.
Chairman of the Committed Taxi Drivers Association of Ghana which is spearheading the strike, Charles Danso had earlier told Citi News that the DVLA is crippling their businesses.
“It is DVLA that issues road worthy certificate to us and before you can obtain that sticker, you have to pass on a computer machine. When we go there, we don’t pass because of the unmotorable roads we are working on, it devastate our cars. The other bad aspect of it is that the officials who use to run the cars through the machine, extort money from the drivers. The system is not good.”
The DVLA last year served notice that it is no longer going to register commercial vehicles with no seat belts for passengers.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Photos by Elvis Washington