By Binta Jaiteh
The president of the Gambia Transport Union has urged the government of The Gambia to take away the processing of driving licence from the police and give to an independent institution.
He made this call Thursday during an organised press briefing of the union in Banjul.
Omar Ceesay emphasised that “the government should take away the processing of driven license from the police’, as transport union highlighted their recent countrywide tour.
According to him, the police are here to enforce the law and not driving license which he said “should be given to independent institution.”
“You cannot be a jury and at the same time a judge, the police know their functions and let them abide by it. We urged government through the Minister of Interior to take driving license processing from them (police) so that the issue of road accident among others can be minimized,” he said,
He added that SEMLEX and GAMBIS are private companies who came to The Gambia invest and are making profit, this is a national document it should not be given to non- Gambian company.
He complained also about the longer staying of Gambian trucks in Senegal as there are over 50 different checking points on the road to and from Senegal but controlling by the Senegalese authorities.
Commenting further he said The Gambia should benefit from the constructed Senegambia Bridge “the grant should reflect on the lives of the people. The tariffs using before is still the same tariff on vehicles and passengers. Citizens should benefit from this.”
Among other concerns raised are the traffic congestion, a challenge to everyone, especially in the Greater Banjul Area, rampant road accident and issuance of license to incompetent drivers.
He continued that “since independence in 1965, Gambia government cannot provide car pack station for commercial transport sector. The OIC project, we know that all lands belong to the state but the government have that interest to operate the project while they refusing to secure a place within the KMC area for car park as a public use.”
Mr Ceesay said creating this would reduce robbery cases and poverty and “the government should take stance to make sure that the ECOWAS protocol is observed if truly the protocol is real.”