17/08/2025
PRESS STATEMENT
Collaborating Transport Unions of Liberia
Fellow Liberians, Members of the Press, and the International Community:
We, the drivers, kehkeh operators, motorcyclists, truckers, and transport entrepreneurs who keep Liberia’s economy moving, have reached a point where silence is no longer an option.
We make it clear: we have no reason to dictate to government which entity it grants concessions to. That is the government’s lawful prerogative. But when a concessionaire like Liberia Traffic Management (LTM) dismisses the opportunity of engaging in positive dialogue with the entirety of the transport sector - from drivers, truckers, vehicle owners,, kehkeh operators to motorcyclists upon whom its business and survival depend - and instead chooses to harass, intimidate, and fragment the very transport stakeholders that keep this nation moving, we must resist.
Our petition to the National Legislature laid out the dangers of LTM’s operations as attested to by the above abuses. Yet, despite legislative engagement and deliberation that seek to arrive at a satisfactory resolution, LTM continues with:
• Arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions,
• Multiple, unjust, exploitative tickets,
• Intimidation, abuse, and harassment in the streets,
• Undermining of the Ministry of Transport’s constitutional duties,
• Deliberate division of transport bodies to weaken our collective strength.
This is not partnership but oppression. It is not empowerment but exploitation. Moreover, it is a blatant trampling of our dignity and rights.
We stand for a reformed transport sector — one in which road transport representatives have a seat in governance and oversight, ensuring policies are fair, sustainable, and shaped with the knowledge of those who live and work on our roads every day. We demand a system that regulates without abusing, that collects revenue without crippling livelihoods, that empowers society without enslaving, and that works with us, not against us.
In rejection of said draconian measures as stipulated by law in protection of basic rights, we will from Monday, 18 August to Wednesday, 20 August 2025, make our voices heard and impossible to ignore.
We will park our vehicles including all machinery of mobility, empty the streets, and stand together in peaceful, united protest.
We call on the Government, the Legislature, and the Liberian people to reject bad deals, end abuse, and join hands to build a transport sector that works for the nation — not against it.
One People. One Voice. One Stand.
Signed,
The Collaborating Transport Unions of Liberia
Monrovia, Liberia – 16 August 2025