By Albert Momoh
What is the Police Doing?
Are drivers plying the Waterloo Tombo and Waterloo Kent route exempted from the Nacoverc guidelines on the number of passengers they can carry? Go to the lorry park and you’ll be shocked to see taxis carrying six passengers: two in front four at the back.and Serena Vans carrying up to ten people.
The scary part is that passengers don’t even put on Face Masks.Passengers who refused to allow this overloading are put down. The policemen pretend not to see whats happening. One of the passengers remarked that once those drivers “book” in the mornings to the police they’re free to do whatever they wish. It will intetest you to know that there three police stations along that route. One at Waterloo the other at Russel and the Tombo police station yet the drivers are allowed to overload despite Narcovern regulations that taxis that should only carry three persons..
Are these drivers above the law? Are the police just interested in filling their pockets at the detriment of the people or are those taxis licensed to carry six people. In fact the ministry of transport should also come in because for such a short distance passengers pay three thousand for a journey that is just one third of that from Lumley to PZ where people pay one hundred and FIFTY thousand Leones and yet they are still crammed in like sardines.
They cannot say it’s because of bad roadbecause it’s a very good road constructed a few years ago. Mr IG you need to call your officers in that area to book, because it’s a syndicate . Theyre being paid from taxpayers money and they have a responsibility to protect lives.
You should also deploy OSD s along that route to monitor vehicles plying the area and beyond. Narcoverc please also send your social mobisation team to that Tombo park and Waterloo market to do more sensitization on the use of face mask and the importance of social distancing ..
Patrick David Koroma My take on this is that the police are still high-handed. I mean they are still taking bribes from drvers and business people and, as such, pretend to keep their eyes off.
The same old system of bribery and corruption still at work.
Our government has to keep open eyes and take drastic measures if it is really serious about fighting corruption. Our government should bear in mind that corruption is endemic and that it has been in practice for so long in our country that it has now become a way of life (culture).
No body is exempt of this practice. In order to get rid of this menace in our society tough disciplinary measures must be put in place..
This is my take!!
Charles Kanu On Point my brother. The lawless of commercial vehicle drivers in the East end of Freetown is unprecedented. Overloading is the order of the day. On the other hand,we would have loved to see an increase of Buses and Poda Poda on the road to mitigate the suffering citizens are going through from East end Police to Waterloo. Let the Minister put modalities in place by sending independent Monitors to the various parks with a view to getting first hand information. The state of the transport status in the country is terrible. Action is needed now by the Ministry
