By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) has begun the collection of payment at tollgate situated in the Hastings, Songo and Masiaka villages. The government deployed Sunday August 13, 2017, armed Police, military and traffic police personnel at the three tollgates.
The toll road is the widening of the Wellington-Masiaka highway from two lanes to four lanes. It is a loan of US$161 million from the Chinese government and the passengers plying the road will have to be repaying the loan for a period of 27 years.
The government, through the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA), has come up with prices for various categories of vehicles that will be plying the route.
These categories include tricycle, taxis with five passengers, mini buses including jeeps, 30-passenger coach/medium size buses, and 10-tyre/heavy duty trucks. The tricycle will pay Le1, 000 ($0.13usd) per toll gate, taxis with five passengers would pay Le2, 000 ($0.27usd), mini buses and jeeps would pay Le4, 000 ($0.53usd), 30 passengers’ coach would pay Le18, 000 (2.40usd) and 10-tyre trucks would pay Le183, 000 (24.40usd) per each toll gate
A driver plying the route, Alusine Kalokoh, who talked to our Correspondent, said the presence of the armed Police, military and traffic police personnel at the three tollgates, was scary, as people would think that they are being coerced to pay.
“We will start to pay for the toll road on 18th August, 2017 but the government provided an alternative route. This is a clear indication that we are forced to pay against our own wish. It’s unfair,” he said Sunday.
A passenger, Amadu Bah, said the armed personnel are making the situation looks threatening as if we are in a midst of war.
“We have agreed to pay but we should not feel intimidated to do so. We are citizens but not criminals, and we are urging the government to remove all the armed personnel at the toll gates and deploy only traffic police officers,” he said.
Mr. Bah said if the government fails to provide an alternative route to the toll road, they would boycott the forthcoming elections, which are slated for March 7, 2018.
However, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of SLRA, Sorie Ibrahim Kanu, said the personnel were there to do a mock tolling for three.
“This mock tolling is where the personnel at the toll gates would tell the drivers and vehicle owners that the government would start to collect toll payment on 18th August, 2017. It’s a way of sensitizing the public, they were not deployed there to scare or intimidate anyone,” he said.
He revealed that they have opened all the four lanes to the public but they are not paying anything now until the 18th August.
He acknowledged that armed Police and military personnel were deployed there but said they were there to direct traffic and not to do anything harmful.
