Okada is killing too many people; let’s stop politicising its use and enforce the laws – Prof. Dodoo

GSA Director-General Director, Prof. Alex Dodoo

The Director General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Prof Alex Dodoo has called for the enforcement of Ghana’s laws on the commercial use of motorcycles, popularly known as ‘okada’.

According to him, okada is responsible for between 30-50% of the accidents that happen in the country.

Speaking to Asaase Radio in an interview, Prof. Alex Dodoo stressed that politicians must stop politicising the commercial use of motor bicycles and rather focus on enforcing laws

“Everybody knows ‘Okada’ is killing and yet people are politicising it. It is about time that we enforced our rules. You see the contribution of Okada to death, now I don’t know whether we can quantify; for me, I will say it’s a minimum of 30, maybe 50% of all deaths can be directly or indirectly related to Okada. I will check the figures,” the GSA Director-General shared.

He continued, “we know for a fact that Okada has moved from being number 10 in the list to like number one or two of cause of deaths and everyone knows because they are not regulated. And you only have to go to Burkina Faso, Togo or Ivory Coast and they obey the rule.”

Prof. Alex Dodoo further revealed that his outfit is keen on doing all it can to check the use of okada.

He said the Ghana Standards Authority will soon come up with the Ghana automotive code to help ensure motorists, especially okada riders comply with regulations.

“Okadas are not regulated and because of this most of their drivers do not follow traffic directives. They behave as though the road is theirs; putting lives at risk.

“In the next few weeks, you will see us launching the Ghana automotive code. The amount of deaths attributed to ‘Okada’ is too much,” the GSA Director-General added.