Transport fares: Savelugu MCE ‘fights’ taxi drivers

The recent fuel hikes have resulted in an increase in transportation fares across the country.

On Saturday, February 26, GPRTU announced a 15% increase in transport fares, but some drivers think the rate is too small and are charging up to 20% which is not the agreed rate that the transport union agreed.

This has resulted in heated disagreement between Hajia Ayishetu Seidu, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Savelugu, and taxi drivers in her area.

Her insistence that fares be capped at GH¢8 instead of the GH¢10 drivers are taking, led to a confrontation on Thursday, in which, taxi drivers were stopped from operating.

Hajia Seidu told Citi FM that before her move, she tried to dialogue with the drivers on the matter but to no avail.

“I had a meeting with the leadership of the drivers to reach a consensus. They said they will get back to us. Unfortunately, it has been two days. We made frantic efforts to get them to come back to the negotiation table, but they didn’t heed our advice,” she said.

She further defended her action, saying, “we are concerned about the plight of our people. We were expecting them to take GH¢8, but the drivers are insisting on taking GH¢10. So we decided to work on it, and so we brought in the buses this morning, but they are saying, we have not been fair to them.”

Andani Osman, Secretary for Savelugu-Tamale taxi drivers, explained that their increase to GH¢10 followed a directive from the Regional Ghana Private Road Transport Union.

“We’ve been doing that for some time now, and she [the MCE] just came with some police and fire personnel, and they drove us out of our workplace.

“She never negotiated this time and that is our problem… We are hoping she will talk to us, but she is bent on taking over our jobs because she is running some buses,” he said.

He noted that the drivers would be willing to compromise and that if the MCE met them halfway at GH¢9, “we will consult among ourselves and see.”