An unspecified number of bike Riders estimated to be in their dozens reportedly avoiding the wrath of the traffic operatives in the Western Area particularly in Freetown are busy flooding the streets of Bo and other major towns in the Provinces following their subsequent escape from their normal places of running, – a situation most say does not only pose traffic problems but has continued to raise growing concerns.
The subsequent situation which has continued to put bike riders on the flight from Freetown to various Provincial Towns comes in the wake of ongoing complains involving harassments of riders by members of the Police together with other Traffic Personnel who in turn blame the riders of failure to obey law and order much to the detriment of peaceful citizens in Freetown.
Speaking of their plights on arrival in Bo and beyond, an unspecified number of bike riders say it’s high time they quit Freetown for fear of continuous suffering and gross molestations they are faced with in the hands of Traffic personnel whom they accuse of engaging into gross Human rights abuses as they go into desperate manhunts for riders who are sometimes taken off their bikes and given physical beatings while riding through the city.
The riders complained of situations in which they sometimes sustain serious injuries besides being sent to prison for failure to part with money in the form of extortion.
Similar statements detailing some type of Police brutality awaits riders whose only crime is that of plying the streets inspite of the fact that riders are made to obtain prerequisite documents which permits them to carry out full time Commercial transportation
Traffic operatives contacted on the matter were quick to dismiss the ever growing number of riders whom the officials accused of total disrespect for law particularly the failure of the riders to observe traffic codes which Police say largely accounts for high rate of bike accidents which has brought untold sufferings to people while others are maimed for life.
Some police Personnel speaking to Awoko say most if not all of the riders now on the run are afraid of their shadows and their inability to correct their attitude for the better which Police and various law Officials cannot compromise least they will no doubt sacrifice the very security of life and property, the mandate of the Police Force
There has been no immediate official statement from the Bike Riders Association in Bo regarding the continues surfacing of runaway Riders now busy doing their runs alongside others except that the Associations’ Task Force is making no mistake in collecting the day to day dues of one Thousand Leones paid for the regional Headquarter currently under construction, an ongoing development heavily contested not only by normal Bo Riders but equally dismissed by the new comers who accuses the Association of trying to enrich individuals by busy putting up fantastic buildings for sweet nothing while the bulk of the Riders remain unattended to not even when they are behind Bars or in Police Net.
Easmon Moiguah