Premises of the six Subdivisional Councils timidly bustled with motorcyclists who responded to a communiqué to identify their motorcycles. The Government Delegate to the Douala Urban Council and mayors of the city’s municipalities in the joint communiqué signed on Monday, January 9, call on commercial motorcyclists to present their motorcycles, originals and photocopies of National Identity Cards and motorcycle identification certificates at the council offices for identification. The communiqué states that a special number and a sticker will be attributed to each “benskin” on identification. Although the exercise was slated to start yesterday January 10 and to run from 7:30 am to 4 pm every working day, up till about mid day only few motorcyclists had turned up.
At the Douala II Subdivisional Council, the officials were still concerting on the administrative modalities, and by afternoon there were no signs of kick off. The disappointed riders expressed their frustrations waiting up to mid day in vain. Stickers to be placed on the commercial motorcycles are identified by colors according to council area. stickers for motorcycles of the Subdivisions of Douala I are coloured blue, those of Douala II brown, Douala III Yellow, Douala IV Red, Douala V green and Douala VI violet. Nonetheless, staff of the Douala I and II Councils were optimistic the exercise will enter full gear as from today. It should be noted that the current measure is to curtail criminal activities and easily identify what section of motorcyclists are responsible for an action. The rise of “benskin” has been linked to an increase in the crime rates in cities throughout the country, particularly in the city centres, urban slums and, some rural areas. Most nagging has been its easy mobilization as a socially degrading strategy to express dissatisfaction with public decisions.
