By DANIELA ITOE NGUM
The Senior Divisional Officer, SDO for Meme Division, Chamberlain Ntou’ou Ndong has in a recent communique prohibited the transportation of more than one person on motorbikes within the Kumba municipality.
The decision that was carried in a radio announcement dated January 29, stipulates that each bike has two seats among which one for the rider and the other for the passenger.
The ban was provoked by the increase crime waves in the metropolis including the persistent kidnapping of Kumba city dwellers with the use of bikes usually observed with two or more passengers on it.
According to Meme difficult for security officers to differentiate between good or bad riders with more than one passenger. The SDO noted that the prohibition is the option to fight against the growing crime wave in town.
The communique that applies to both commercial and personal bike riders also called on riders to be responsible as defaulters will be severely sanctioned according to the rules and regulations in force.
Earlier on, the SDO in another communique dated January 23rd, suspended the circulation of all motorbikes both commercial and personal between the hours of 9:00pm to 6:00am from Mondays to Sundays till further notice.
Talking to some riders they receive the decision with mixed. Most of them decry that they might not be able to make any profit using that measure and the stipulated time frame.
‘We receive the information with mixed feelings, it is not easy now and given the period that we have to work, we have to close by 9:00pm so we cannot meet up’, a rider noted.
The riders further decry that the decision might put some of them out of business as most passengers are unable to pay a drop.
‘We carry one passenger, the person might tell you that he has FCFA 100 and the distance might be more than that amount but with two passengers with FCFA 100 each we’ll easily carry. At times passengers do complain that they don’t have money but when they join, they themselves like to join so that the fare will be cheap’, another rider added.
Kumba inhabitants on their part said they are usually unable to pay a bike drop reasons why they prefer to board it with another in order to meet up with the cost.