DRIVERS DEFY COURT ORDER (PAGE 37)

From Emmanuel Modey, Hohoe

The Hohoe High Court has banned vehicles from loading on the shoulders and portions of the Jasikan–Accra Highway in front of the Hohoe main lorry park as well as from the junction of the Hohoe Municipal Court to the former Top Oil Filling Station.
This was an order of interlocutory injunction issued by the High Court upon an affidavit filed on behalf of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and seven others against the Northern Volta Cooperative Limited, Hohoe and Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA).
In a judgement delivered by the Hohoe High Court Judge, Justice Mustapha Logoh on, May 21, 2009 said that “ all the parties to this suit are restrained from loading on the shoulders and portions of the Jasikan-Accra motor road just in front of the main lorry park”.
But in spite of the ban, passenger vehicles plying Hohoe and the South have defied the High Court order and continue to load on the shoulders and portions in front of the main lorry park .
These vehicles could be seen all round the day briskly competing with vehicles parked in the main lorry park and the Cooperative lorry parks.
In the suit filed on March 24, this year, the applicant, GPRTU prayed for the order to restrain the defendants, Cooperative and PROTOA from interfering with or engaging in forcible loading of passengers from the applicants lorry park.
The suit also asked them to stop harassing passengers and forcibly turning the road side into a loading point thereby creating conflict, mayhem and breach of peace.
Although the police were ordered to ensure total compliance with the court order, they have looked on helplessly while the order is defied.