Eyes on Ground: Kumasi-Tatale drivers frustrated over inspection of ID cards at Zabzugu

Some drivers who ply the Kumasi-Tatale Highway have expressed frustration over the novel inspection methods introduced by security officers along some checkpoints within the Zabzugu area of the Northern Region.

According to the drivers, previously they used to enter the Tatale township with police and immigration officials conducting normal inspection of drivers’ documents and goods on board.

However, in the past few days, security has been beefed up with the security personnel now demanding either a national identification card or voters’ identification card before allowing passengers entry to the border town of Tatale.

The drivers say they were not given prior notice about the innovation and that has frustrated their work.

In videos obtained by GhanaWeb, some of the drivers threatened to embark on a demonstration if the situation is not addressed.

“Last week, I didn’t see anything here but this morning I saw something that I don’t understand. The security guys here say only those with Ghana card and voters ID card will be allowed to pass. We are ignorant of this because we were not informed. If we had been informed, we would have told our passengers,” one of the drivers said.

Another driver said that while he believes that it is a good measure by the state, there should have been an effective communication between the security services and the road users.

“They have mounted a barrier at Zabzugu and won’t allow you to enter Tatale. What the Immigration and soldiers are doing could cause trouble here. They should speak to us because we are lost,” he said.

Another driver expressed anger about the situation and threatened to embark on a demonstration.

“They made us drop all the passengers because they did not have ID cards. I even lost my license in the process. We don’t understand what they are doing. This is a border town and there are foreigners here. If the authorities don’t come and talk to us, we wouldn’t understand. We will demonstrate. The GPRTU branch here will resist it,” the aggrieved driver maintained.