Kini Nsom
25 February 2008
Government has reportedly ordered the authorities of the Yaounde Urban Council to stop extorting FCFA 25.000 from people who park their cars wrongly.
The order was dished out to the Government Delegate to the Yaounde Urban Council, Gilbert Tsimi Evouna, during a meeting with some senior government officials in Yaounde on February 21. The meeting, which held behind closed doors, The Post learnt, was aimed at taking measures to avert a strike action by transporters syndicates that was due to begin today.
A confederation of 14 transport trade unions submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Chief Ephraim Inoni, amongst other things, complaining about the extortion of FCFA 25.000 by the Yaounde Urban Council. The Yaounde Urban Council had imposed a regulation to the effect that anybody who parks his or her car wrongly pays a penalty FCFA 25.000.
He is compelled to pay an additional FCFA 5000 when the car is dragged to the council pound. Each night that the car spends in the council premises its owner pays an extra FCFA 5000.
A victim of this extortion told The Post that only fake receipts are issued against the huge sums of money people pay.A government source regretted that such an illegality was allowed to go on for too long. "It is true that we need order in Yaounde, but what the city council authorities are doing is not intended to teach people where and how to park their cars, but to extort money from citizens," he said.
Taxi drivers were the greatest victims. During a meeting of the trade unions in Yaounde last week, some drivers threatened to drag the Government Delegate to court for extorting huge sums of money from them.
The city council workers are said to have overstepped their bounds when they recently wheel-clamped the car of a senior government official who had barely stopped over for one minute to buy a newspaper somewhere in town.
The said official sat in his car and sent his bodyguard to buy a newspaper. To his embarrassment, his car was wheel-clamped. The council boys removed the wheel-clamp when they discovered their victim was a senior official.
Besides the meeting, which the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Prof. Robert Nkili, held with transport trade unions last week, government held many other meetings aimed at averting an imminent strike action by drivers. In one of such meetings, the Delegate General of National Security and the Secretary of State In charge of the Gendarmerie were urged to reduce check points and punish gendarmes and police elements who extort money from drivers and other citizens.
Hikes In Fuel Prices
As far as the recent increase in fuel prices, that is one of the main grievances of the drivers, government said it is helpless and has nothing to do because the increase prices are imposed from the world market. Even the visiting IMF official, Daneshwar Ghura, corroborated the claim that the increases in petrol prices are trends from the world market.
According to the General Manager of the Price Stabilisation Fund for Petroleum products, Mr. Talba Malla, government is losing over FCFA 6 billion every month to stabilise the prices and make them affordable for Cameroonians. He explained that even though Cameroon exports petrol, the crude oil used in the country is imported. Thus, the Cameroon must bow to the decisions of the world market.
However, it was resolved that government would take serious measures to stop the tides of the spiralling inflation provoked by the increase in fuel prices.
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