Regional News of Thursday, 3 August 2006

Source: GNA

Assembly partnership Police, Military to enforce traffic laws in Tamale

Tamale, August 3, GNA - The Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, in its quest to ensure discipline, law and order on road usage has entered into partnership with the Police and the Military to enforce traffic laws in the Metropolis.

In one of such operations, dubbed: "Operation fighting indiscipline in Tamale", 30 vehicles were impounded for unlawful parking and leaving vehicles at dangerous spots on the roads. Owners of the vehicles would be arraigned on August 4.

At a press briefing before the exercise, the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Mohammed Amin Adam, said it was a common phenomenon to see vehicles parked at unauthorized places, especially at the business centre of the city.

It was equally worrying to also see goats, sheep and cattle competing for space on the roads.

He said the menace of these animals had become a nuisance to shop owners and other traders on daily basis and must not be allowed to continue.

Mr. Adam said reports reaching the Metropolitan Assembly indicated that herds of cattle had turned a portion of the road near the Aboabo Shell Station along the Nyohini road into a kraal and splashing the entire place with dung and urine.

He said the assembly would impound straying animals and the owners would either face prosecution or pay heavy fines or both. Mr. Adam said the assembly has therefore given August 10 as an ultimatum to animals owners to confine their animals. He appealed to politicians, traditional rulers and opinion leaders not to interfere with the exercise but rather help to make the operations a success.

On sanitation, Mr. Adam said the assembly had spent 140 million cedis to procure 100-liter bins from GRATTIS Foundation in Tamale, which would be placed at vintage points for the people to drop waste. He said the assembly was also going to construct new modern toilets and rehabilitate some of the existing ones to provide adequate places of convenience for the people.

He therefore appealed to the people to stop defecating and littering the environment indiscriminately since nobody would be spared if caught.