Due to the Government’s regulations to maintain social distancing and prevent further spread of the deadly Coronavirus in the country, which include reducing the number of passengers permitted on board vehicles, commercial drivers are taking advantage of the crisis and charging extra fares from passengers.
Minibuses known locally as ‘Poda-Podas’, taxis and “Kekehs” (Rickshaws) which are the media of commercial transport which are the centre of exploiting the travelling populace, with little consideration to the plight Sierra Leoneans commuting to earn their daily bread.
A passenger, Alhajie Kamara, who plies from Calaba Town everyday asserted that poor monitoring by the authorities in the transport sector is permitting this mistreatment of the general public by the drivers. He described the act as corrupt.
By his reckoning, the areas notorious for the drivers’ menace are Wellington, Calaba Town and Waterloo. He disclosed that sometimes from Calaba Town to Bombay commuters are asked to pay Le 5,000, by minibus drivers thus negatively affecting those who cannot afford it.
“There is no maintenance of social distance when it comes to the transportation sector. In the evening mostly passengers cluster and make physical contact as they scramble a lot to catch transportation.”
Fatu Sesay, a passenger plying from Freetown to Kabala, told this medium that they also suffer at the hands of drivers, as the fares have been increased and things have continued with no monitoring. Transportation cost from Waterloo to Mile 91 in a taxi that carries 6 passengers is Le35, 000 and for Makeni, with the same capacity, is Le 40, 000.
According to Alusine Sillah, a driver who usually plies from Freetown to Makeni, they are being harassed and pressured by the law enforcement authorities and the Drivers Union, adding that “we have no choice but to increase the transport fare, so that at the end we will realize something”.
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
11/09/2020. ISSUE NO: 7907