The Madina Division of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) says it has relaxed its operations of apprehending pedestrians for failing to use the Madina-Adentan footbridges for today, Thursday, October 17, 2019.

The reason to relax the operation, according to the Divisional MTTD Commander, Superintendent Paul Wesley Baah, is to be able to deal with the 110 pedestrians, who were arrested on Wednesday for not using Madina-Adentan footbridges

The pedestrians were granted bail on Wednesday after they were arrested for failing to use the footbridges, especially the one at Zongo Junction.

Authorities have been complaining about the low patronage of the footbridges despite an earlier national uproar over the lack of such facilities on that stretch.

All the six footbridges, located at Firestone, Madina-Zongo Junction, Redco Junction, Ritz Junction, SDA Junction and WASS were left unattended to until the media waged war on the authorities to fix them.

This was as a result of fatal knock-downs, especially in 2018, and a violent protest by the residents.

But a year after the footbridges were completed, there have been complaints that the bridges were too far from bust stops and caused serious inconvenience and as such some pedestrians resorted to jaywalking instead of using them.

Speaking in an interview with Onua FM’s Yen Sempa hosted by Bright Kwasi Asempa on Thursday, Supt Baah said the pedestrians arrested on Wednesday were taken to court, where they were granted bail.

“The charges were jay walking and refusing to use overpass or underpass,” he explained.

Supt Baah expressed surprise that the youth whose ages are between 25 and 45 years were those offenders but the elder men and women whom they thought would not climb the footbridges are rather patronizing them.

He promised that the police will sustain the exercise until the people start using the footbridges.