Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako Atta has bemoaned the disregard for the ECOWAS Axle Load Regime by some drivers of heavy load trucks from other West African landlocked countries who clear their goods from the various ports in Ghana.

The Axle Load Regime spells out the weight every heavy load-duty cargo truck can carry in order to ensure road safety and prevent damage to roads.

According to the Minister, many of these heavy-load cars from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, etc are disregarding the standard by ECOWAS and partly causing damage on many of the highways of the country.

To ensure compliance with the regime, Kwesi Amoako-Atta has however revealed there is an Axle Load Unit in the Ministry of Roads and Highways that manages the various axle road centers to keep these drivers in check.

He therefore categorically stated that the menace is going on unchecked because many of his staff at the unit are thieves and corrupt who always look out for their selfish parochial gains to the detriment of the entire nation.

According to the Minister, he is reliably informed that many overloaded cargo trucks that freely ply Ghana’s roads dare not enter other countries with such loads and unauthorized axles.

Speaking to the media, Kwesi Amoako-Atta admitted that, “my own ministry, we have axle load centres but because of thievery and corruption, these people since I am not there, they just get their way out. I am coming to wage war against them in my own ministry.”

“I admit, majority of those who work at my axle load unit are thieves and I am coming to fish them out,” the minister furiously hinted.