The Chief Executive of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe, says the Road Minister’s justification after he was reprimanded by Parliament for hastily terminating toll collection is an insult to road users.
The legislature on Thursday, November 18 was displeased with Kwasi Amoako-Attah for ordering the immediate cessation of the collection of road tolls in the country.
The Speaker, Alban Bagbin, directed that the order be reversed insisting that the decision was illegal.
He explained that although the scrapping of tolls on roads was announced in the 2022 budget, it remains a proposal until Parliament approves it.
But justifying the decision, the Road Ministry claimed the directive was to protect lives and property as many motorists were getting rowdy and attempting to physically abuse toll collectors due to the belief that the announcement in the 2022 budget was to take immediate effect.
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Reacting to this, Mr Cudjoe said the said explanation depicts road users in the country as lawless.
“It was a convenient way of somehow trying to douse the flame on the e-levy. You cannot tell us that if you told us that this will come into effect in January 2022, we will be confused and start breaking toll booths.
“This is an insult to those of us who use roads. We can read and write. This was one of those political games. This was too brazen and it is an insult to be told that people were going to disorganise and break into all forms of untoward behaviour. I don’t believe it. Even as we speak now, it [the minister’s directive] has still not been reversed,” he said.
