Civil society group, Road Safety Advocates Ghana, has dragged government to court over the branding of Metro Mass Transit buses with images of President Mahama and others.
The group says the branding breaches provisions of the Road Traffic Regulations, which require that windows and windscreens of vehicles should not be tinted in a manner to impair visibility.
“A person may drive a motor vehicle which has glass other than windscreen and front glass, tinted with light transmittance of at least 70% to allow the occupants to see and be seen if the form or tinting material applied to the windscreen or window is free from bubbles or scratches or the form or material applied to the window…does not reduce the visibility of the person driving the motor vehicle in any direction”
The group insists that they have no problem with the images used, but that the material used for branding the bus breaches the law.
“We are not so much interested in the president or the other former heads of state…we are interested in the materials or the fixtures used. If in the process the effigies are removed [then] fine”, counsel for the group, Kwabena Kunadu-Yiadom told Joy News Raymond Acquah.
The branding of 116 public buses at a cost of GH₵ 3.6million caused a public stir after the story broke in December last year. The branding company, Smarttys Management and Production branded each bus for GH₵31,000 each.
Since the revelations, the Transport minister Dzifa Attivor has resigned and government has been dragged to court to release details of the contract with Smarttys Management.
The company has also refunded GH₵1.5million after the Attorney-General determined that the contract was over-priced.
But the controversy has now moved from the value of the bus branding deal to road traffic regulations.
More soon…
By: Dan Kwasi Prince// www.dailyviewgh.com
Writer’s email dailyviewgh@gmail.com
