Member of Parliament (MP) for Adaklu constituency in the Volta region Kwame Agbodza has cautioned the ruling NPP government not to attempt to legalize and regularize the operation of ‘Okada’.
NPP has in the past few days announced that they are far advanced in talks to make the okada business legal and regularized in Ghana after the NDC had made it a campaign promise which formed part of their manifesto.
The MP in an interview on the Happy Morning Show (HMS) with Samuel Eshun cautioned the NPP to make sure they don’t capture this too as their initiative to sway Ghanaians for votes in the upcoming December polls.
“Mahama will be happy if that happens because that is all he wants for the people of this country but don’t forget Dr Bawumia has already said that they will provide better jobs than okada in 2020. Several NPP stalwarts have told us that they are not going to do that. When they bring it to parliament we will support it but it can never be their baby. This is a vision of the NDC.”
“Since November 2017, different okada groups have come to parliament that we should give them hearing to legalize okada business in this country. Since that time, we’ve had series of meetings and at every meeting the minister and the national road safety commission then, which is now an authority was emphatic that ‘Okada’ is a dangerous business and they were not going to legalize it; and as at the end of August 2020, there was a release from the national road safety authority to John Mahama that legalizing okada is dangerous. Now the minister says he has been doing consultation. They might have been doing consultation but the posture of government is that it’s dangerous.” he added.
By: Emmanuel Owusu Boadi