National Chief Imam Cautions Against Reckless Road Use Ahead of Eid Festivities
The National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, has urged road users to conduct themselves responsibly ahead of the Eid festivities.
He cautioned against overtaking, phone use, and overloading which could cause accidents.
The Chief Imam gave the advice in Accra yesterday during a courtesy call on him by a delegation from the National Road Safety Authority.
As part of the visit, the National Road Safety Authority donated Gh¢5,000 and food items such as rice, milk, and sugar to the office of the National Chief Imam.
Addressing the delegation, the National Chief Imam urged all travellers to exercise restraint, warning that impatience on the roads risks turning celebration into mourning.
He recalled that he had been appointed years earlier as Ambassador and Patron of Road Safety, and therefore bore a responsibility to help reduce crashes.
“And anything that we do to ensure we protect life is a moral responsibility and an ethical principle for us. So from a very religious point of view, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to God as a duty to be cautious,” he said.
The Imam added that crash victims often do not die but are maimed, and that the rising numbers of disabled from irresponsible road use are unacceptable. He gave assurance that on the day of celebration he would make it one of his key messages to caution young people especially, whose tendency to be reckless during festivities should not be encouraged.
For her part, the Head of Corporate Affairs of National Road Safety Authority, Mrs Simbiat Wiredu, explained that overloading tends to rise during Eid, which is why they considered it the right time to collaborate with the Chief Imam’s office to issue cautions to celebrants and advise everyone ahead of the festivities to keep road users safe.
“We see overloading of vehicles especially during Eid and so we thought it’s the right time to collaborate with the office of the Chief Imam to throw some words of caution to the celebrants,” she said.
That, she said, had prompted the authority to approach the Imam’s office and necessitated the visit.
“We are looking at the digitalisation of traffic enforcement system which is the TrafficTech GH system, where police will no longer — I mean the human face of enforcement will be reduced and so you see a lot of digitalised notifications on our phones,” he said.
She outlined some key initiatives of the National Road Safety Authority to promote road safety, including digitalisation of traffic enforcement through the “TrafficTech GH” system, which would reduce the human element of enforcement, digitalisation of the towing system so that vehicles could be towed off as soon as possible, and regulations on commercial motorcycle (Okada) operations.
Mrs Wiredu noted that once the Legislative Instrument was passed, they would carry out public education on those measures.
BY AGNES OWUSU
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