THE Upper East Regional Security Council (REGSEC) is to meet to resolve an impasse between the Ghana Highway Authority and drivers of cargo trucks that ply the ECOWAS trunk road.
The drivers, who blocked traffic on the portion of the route in Bolgatanga on Monday morning due to the impasse, have threatened to continue with the protest if their grievances were not addressed.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the Upper East Region, Chief Inspector Thomas Yaw Agbenyo, who was among a team of police personnel that visited the scene to restore order, told the Daily Graphic that the drivers had blocked other vehicles from using the Tamale-Bolga route.
He said the trucks numbered over twenty, adding that this action of the drivers caused a heavy traffic on the route and caused considerable inconvenience to other road users.
Chief Insp. Agbenyo said when the police got to the scene, the drivers were adamant, until the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo and the Regional Police Commander, intervened.
He said the concerns of the drivers were that they were made to pay double because they were forced to stop at the axle load weighing station at Bolga, although they had already been weighed at axle load weighing station in Yapei in the Northern Region.
“The drivers said they could not understand why after weighing at Yapei, they should be made to weigh and pay fines one more time at Bolga,” he narrated.
Chief Insp Agbenyo noted that the some of the drivers also raised concerns about the fees charged at the Bolga weighing station, describing such fees as exorbitant.
“They claim they are made to pay as high as GH¢1000 for exceeding the standard loading limit,” he mentioned.
He further noted that the drivers claimed that some of them who carried foodstuffs run into loss anytime their trucks were seized for failure to pay the fines.
“Now REGSEC would meet and discuss this matter with the hope of finding a lasting solution to it,” he said.
Meanwhile, further investigations carried out by this paper revealed that the axle loading weighing station at Bolgatanga is managed by LIZHASSAN Enterprise.
Many of the trucks that weigh at this station are coming from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and other countries.
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