By: Kruah Thompson
The Liberia National Police (LNP) has announced an immediate halt to the unauthorized use of vehicles carrying sirens across the country.
The police say that, following growing concerns over public safety and traffic law violations, they have ordered the entire police unit to ensure that all cars carrying sirens are stopped and interrogated to verify their use is appropriate.
The police also request that government officials who are not authorized to carry sirens remove them from their cars, as using them requires a specific purpose.
Disclosing this over the weekend, Information Minister Jerolinmek Mathew Piah believes that the 1972 trafficking law gives the LNP the legal right to do so. “So, from now on, no unauthorized vehicle will play the streets of Liberia.”
He states that Chapter 38, Subsection 6.21 of the 1972 Vehicle and Traffic Laws only authorizes police, fire, or other emergency or official government vehicles, and the type of sirens must be approved by the Ministry of Justice.
Therefore, he added that the police are now enforcing this policy to restore discipline on the road and safeguard public property.
Speaking on the occasion, He narrated that under normal conditions, sirens should only be used when the vehicle is being operated in response to a fire alarm, or other emergency call, in the immediate pursuit of a suspected criminal, or on any other emergency basis.
“The illegal use of sirens not only endangers road users’ lives, but it disrupts the free flow of traffic and undermines the effort of the police whom the public trust to uphold the rule of law.” “I may look up at the traffic lights and see green and get ready to cross, then a man who thinks he’s carrying a siren may try to dodge the traffic and hit me,” he said, adding that, “Sometimes it violates the traffic law and may be the cause of someone losing their lives.”
Despite the new policy, this paper conducted a comprehensive evaluation over the weekend to get citizens’ responses regarding the new policy.
In our many interviews, many residents who live in Fiamah supported the government’s new policy.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Sampson Gonkarnue, a resident of Matadi, told our reporters. He believes that sometimes some vehicles, including those from private security, will cause unnecessary noise. “Maybe it will decrease the noise too much.”
Additionally, an individual who claimed to be from a political party disagreed with the idea, stating that President Boakai is trying to “make the country look” like Taylor’s time.
Isaac George says he strongly opposes the idea because the president is trying to make the country appear as though it’s Taylor’s time.
Charles Ghankay Taylor is a former Liberian politician and warlord who served as the 22nd President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003. He is one of the most controversial figures in modern African history due to his role in Liberia’s civil wars that cost the lives of over 25,000 Liberians and his involvement in war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone.
George says the country has now gone back to the days when Liberians will not live freely and are now being hunted for expressing themselves.
Meanwhile, Minister Piah believes that the decision was the right one to make, and it will reduce noise and bring harmony to the country’s residents.
