By: Nyima Sillah & Binta Jaiteh
Tricycle drivers plying on roads within the Greater Banjul Area have accused the police of unfair treatment as they called on the Transport Union to help intervene and address their plight.
Bangal Jabbie, said tricycle drivers sometimes use the footpath as an opportunity to drive fast and get to their destinations, three times faster than other cars on the roads, to avoid wasting lot of fuel in the traffic.
But “the police are just doing whatever they like and feel like doing to us unlike other drivers in the roads. Because they know we generate more money than other taxi drivers that is the problem. Sometimes if the police catch me, I pay D300 or D200, and sometimes they can catch me more than two times or three times a day,” Bangal Jabbie driver of a tricycle told The Voice.
He called the Gambia Transport Union to intervene, saying “we are facing a lot of difficulties with the traffic police officers.”
Bangali who did not explain the reason why police do arrest tricycle drivers said what they are gaining as daily take home is not much saying at end of a full day work they will give half of the tricycle owners then buy fuel for the next day work “so most time we end up going home with balance of D200 or D250 and if you are unlucky and been caught with police then you might end up going home with nothing.”
But Kebba Camara, Officer in Charge Mobile Police Annex dismissed the accusations and said: “these drivers are very rough when driving they don’t care about the safety of people, instead they always sneak in using short cut which is undone.”
“The traffic congestion is usually caused by them, sometimes they pack themselves at Westfield especially in the evening time.The reason for them doing that I don’t know! The issue of police taking money from them I’m not aware of that complain,” OIC Camara stated.
According to the Officer, ‘TUK-TUK’ cars are owned by companies like Serahuli companies, White men among others and they will not sit and watch them drive dangerously on the highway because they can kill or seriously wound somebody. After all, our duty is to protect the lives and properties of the Gambian people.
He therefore urged the drivers against violating traffic rules saying “Footpath driving is dangerous and anyone caught could be charged with D2500 or D5000 and that depends on the lawyers at the court.”
“Traffic job is very difficult because we usually warn them before taking any action against them but they give us a deaf ear. We want to discuss with the company whom they are working under to exchange ideas and see how best we can manage the situation. But they are not responding” to the calls he disclosed.
