Some Lawyers and their clients were left frustrated in the area around the law Court Complex in Accra yesterday when their vehicles were clamped by the taskforce of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for wrong parking.
They were compelled to pay GH70.00 before they were allowed to move their cars. The Court Complex according to them was congested and the only alternative place for them was to park by the road-side. They described the GH70.00 fee charged by the taskforce as twisting their arms to get money.
Speaking to the Daily Heritage moments after being issued a receipt of payments, the frustrated and angry lawyers and their clients said there was no sign of ‘no parking’ to alert them.
What is more baffling, according to them, was the fact that yesterday was not the first time they had parked by the road side, stressing that anytime the court complex car park was full, they park outside.
Angry Lawyer
One of the lawyers, who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity, said “if they are going to do this to our cars, it means they don’t want lawyers to come to court. If lawyers don’t have a parking space, then what happens to litigants?” he wondered.
According to him, if this persists, their clients “will not come to court at all because they will clamp their cars. AMA should take a second look at this issue of clamping our cars when we come to court.
“I just came out of court and I am in a hurry to go to a meeting and my car had been clamped without any prior notice. No announcement was made about anything. We were not warned. It is not helping the course of justice at all.”
Another victim, Stanley Blankson, whose car was affected said, “the court yard was congested and there was a long queue. I had a case slated for 11:00am. And I got here a few minutes to 11, if I had decided to wait for the queue to clear, I would have been late, there were other vehicles that were parked there, so I just joined and quickly rushed to go and handle my case.
“When I came back, I saw a notice on the vehicles windscreen with a number to call. When I called the receiver said I had to do an MTN mobile money transfer. While working on that I met this gentleman and he said he was the one who had the key. I paid GH 70.00.
No warning sign
Frustrated, Eric Brako, also told the paper that, “today (yesterday) is not the first time I have parked here. There is no sign here to warn drivers not to park. If you want the system to be effective that is what you should do. ‘No parking sign’ should be placed at vantage points so that it will warn people not to part there but if you don’t do that any driver who wants a space to park will park there. I had no option.”
Personnel of the AMA taskforce who were seen issuing receipt of GH70.00 to those affected told the paper that they started that exercise two weeks ago and had been able to clamp down over 10 cars.
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