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Regional News of Tuesday, 25 April 2006

Source: The Sun

DCE Slaps Taxi Driver

A hefty slap from no mean a personality than the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Berekum, Kwabena Kyere Yeboah across the face of a local taxi driver, Asuo-Wam, has so infuriated the horde of taxi drivers in the Berekum vicinity such that they have sworn to embark on a strike action should the DCE refuse to apologise in quick time.

Despite a spirited effort by the DCE to water the issue by addressing a host of them later on, the taxi drivers in the Berekum vicinity lost no time in heaping loads of blame at the doorstop of Mr. Kyere Yeboah, accusing him of going wayward in an era when democracy rather than brute force is the order of the day.

According to the DCE, driver Asuo-Wam had parked at an unauthorized place and had been appealed to move on because it posed a serious accident threat. Hard to relate though, the DCE said he returned to find the same cab with registration number BA 599 A, parked at the same place. Obviously infuriated, Mr. Kyere Yeboah queried the driver why he had opted to flout his directive. ?It was when he let out a cheeky reply that since the road did not belong to me, I could move over to the other side and pack if I so cared that anger took the better part of me culminating in the act?.
The taxi driver has since not been reached for his side of the story. Independent investigations mounted so far has proved beyond every reasonable doubt that the driver parked at an unauthorized place where a No Parking signboard had been positioned. However as the issue unfolded, the DCE took pains to show extreme anger at the Berekum MTTU personnel who he claimed refused to prosecute offending drivers whenever they faulted.
He rubbished the often-heard saying by the Police that the law court did not have enough legal legs to stand on to convict guilty drivers, and challenged them to be up and doing before lives were lost.
Mr. Kyere Yeboah cautioned drivers in the vicinity to take pains to ensure that their operations never brought untold hardships such as congestion to other drivers.
But despite all these cautionary statements, callers to a local FM station programme never minced words as they poured out their anger on the DCE for going over the top with the slap, when indeed as the President?s representative, he could have reported the matter to the police to take action.