Beginning May 15, 2024, all motorcyclists and tricyclists will be restricted from entering the city center and other parts of Monrovia, Police Inspector General, Gregory O. W. Coleman has announced.
Coleman disclosed that the decision is part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Liberia National Police and the cyclists.
Speaking on Thursday, April 12, 2024 at the headquarters of the LNP in Monrovia, Coleman said after consultation in the presence of Civil Society groups, the cyclists and other road users agreed to where the ‘no go-zone’ areas will be.
He said the Police is extensively coordinating with the Federation of Motorcycle and Tricycle Union to ensure a cordial and sustainable solution to hazards posed by cyclists on the main streets.
The Police Chief indicated that the objective of the approach is to get the cyclist’s involvement which he said has proven to be a more sustainable and less forceful.
According to him, the cyclists are currently in the sensitization phase and enforcement will begin by the 15 of May.
“We are doing this so it can’t be against the police because we are trying to limit our interactions with them that will result into violence,” IG Coleman mentioned.
He indicated that those group of people (cyclists, kekehs) are extremely vulnerable and exploited that’s why “We are careful not just because of that but because we are managing the space in a way that we are responsible to preserve the peace.”
Coleman stressed that their approach to the public safety issues is completely different, which he stated that everyone expectation is that; motorcycles and tricycles should be off the street by now.
“That’s not our approach, our approach is more from the stand point of withholding the culture of safety and this culture of safety doesn’t stop motorbikes and kehkeh riders but goes to all road users so we have been engaging them at different levels of education which is a cardinal point; we can’t just start running people off the streets; it has to take some time,” Inspector General Coleman explained.
