By: Audrey John
The fight to reduce or minimize the regular causes of terrible road crashes/accidents, especially in the heart of Freetown had becomes too challenging over the period as a result of the lawless attitude of some private investors who are allegedly working in connivance with certain unscrupulous members of our security force to allow Ahmed Mackie’s loaded trucks of cement to often occupied a big portion of a very busy highway, starting from Up Gun, Bomeh to Ferry Junction regularly under the purview of senior police officers.
Recently, a terrible and lethal accident was about to happen just after Bomeh to Ferry Junction as a result of the heavily loaded trucks of Mr. Ahmed Mackie which occupied a big space of the highway in that part of the city.
Many campaigns had been held on road safety by stakeholders in the road and transport sector, but it seems as if the ill characters of certain investors had derailed the efforts of the Government, civil societies and line institutions to achieve or enhance their objective to reduce road crashes through awareness raising campaign.
According to findings, this medium discovered that authorities from the Sierra Leone Roads Authorities (SLRA) and the Ministry of Transport and Aviation had stopped Mr. Mackie from continuing with the construction of his cement factory project at a Government land located at the Rogbangba Community in the Western Area Rural District until he goes through legal processes, but Mr. Mackie claimed that he had bought the said conflicted piece of land to the Government of Sierra Leone.
However, travellers to and out of Freetown are appealing to the heads of the security forces, especially our noble new Inspector General of Police, William Faya Sellu to do the needful by restricting Ahmed Mackie’s loaded heavy vehicles from occupying a big portion of the road which had led to the regular traffic jam and lethal accidents.
Contacting investor Ahmed Mackie to respond to the damning allegations, he said let’s leave the job to control traffic jam because it doesn’t concern or connect with the work of journalists, adding that his trucks never cause any accident along the above-mentioned route, except we give reasons for an accident to happen within the mentioned places.
In that regard, citizens are calling on the timely intervention of our new IGP William Faya Sellu to make sure that the management of MACCEM works by the country’s traffic regulations to save lives.
