Government has announced its solution to the persistent refusal of some bike riders in the nation’s capital, Yaounde to comply with designated circulation limits and regulations governing identification. The rise in these practices was subject of a meeting between some administrative officials on the Centre region and commercial motorbike riders’ syndicates.
The chaos governing the sector, Territorial Administration Minister, Atanga Nji stated, is due to administrative tolerance which has now reached its end. Commercial bike riders are expected to have a valid national identity card, a category A driving licence, a registered motorbike and a numbered vest or jacked.
They are also expected to not circulate past certain limits in town, especially areas reserved for circulation of cars only.
But sights of them violating these orders have become a common occurrence, even in broad day light.
“There is a clear choice: either you choose to be identified and practice your profession, or you decide not to be identified and stop practicing your profession. In any event, offenders will face the full force of the law,” the minister stated.
To further curb the challenge at the source, the Territorial Administration boss revealed that the identification of motorbikes will now be compulsorily extended to importers, sellers and owners of motorbike taxis. “Importers or sellers who fail to register motorbikes put into circulation,” he told them, “will henceforth be personally liable for any acts committed using unregistered motorbikes. They will have to pay the penalty and their businesses will be sealed off.”
Of rape, assault and petty theft
In addition to the disorder created by unruly commercial bike riders, Minister Atanga Nji also heaped on them the blame for rising insecurity. He remarked that in the past two months, over two thousand cases of rape, assault, and road accidents were recorded, mostly with the aid of bikes.
Government, he noted, would not hesitate to make paste of those found wanting:
“I would like to tell them that policing is the Moulinex [blender] and the criminals are the condiments. When you put in groundnuts, Ndjansa and garlic in the Moulinex, paste comes out.”
“I’ll say it once more,” he reiterated. “Policing is the Moulinex and criminals, aggressors, terrorists and those who plot against republican institutions are the condiments. When the condiments go into the Moulinex, the dough comes out.”
The date limit for riders to comply with identification norms expires in a month (October 30, 2023) and many are curious to see the tough-talking minister swing into action.