Commercial motor bike riders in Port Loko City went on a sit-at-home strike on Friday September 1st 2023.

This came into effect after a large number of riders mobilized and rallied round some major street of the township on Thursday evening chanting “tomorrow is the day” informing the public about their action.

“Firstly, the automatic increase in fuel price and secondly, the police are planning to embark on raiding us,” Isheka Bangura, a rider at the NP park in Port Loko Town revealed.

However, Abubakarr James Bangura, the bike riders chairman of the Bakeh Loko Chiefdom in Port Loko District said “The strike is unknown to me as I was not around and had no information about it from my boss who is the overall chairman of the District.”

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He added that he has been getting several calls from authorities like the Assistance Inspector General (AIG), Local Unit Commander(LUC) and Office of National Security ( ONS) concerning the strike but could not account for it. He promised to move to his park heads and know the causes and the way forward.

Few days back, bike riders have been expressing frustrations over the  increase of fuel price and planned raiding of commercial motorcyclists by the police in the township.

The Petroleum Regulatory Agency (PRA) and partners announced an increase in the price of fuel from NLe 25 to NLe 30 last week. Many locals in the capital Freetown expressed their frustration over the increment suggesting that low income earners will be at receiving end of it.

But authorities said that the government is spending huge sum of money on fuel subsidy and cutting it down will allow them to use the money to support other sectors.

Sierra Leone’s economy is currently struggling with the government heaping the blame on the effects of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.