Some commercial drivers in the Accra metropolis have threatened to picket against personnel of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service.
The soon-to-happen protest, according to the drivers, is intended to register their dissatisfaction with the rate of corruption perpetuated by the MTTU personnel on the capital�s roads.
�I can promise you that we the drivers in Accra metropolis would gang up in an Ashiaman-style against the mistreatment we encounter in the hands of police officials � and tell them enough is enough�.,� a driver at the Obra Spot in Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, Mohammed Halid, told the Today newspaper.
He disclosed that plans are far advanced to abandon their vehicles and hit the road to register their complaints to the government.
Halid also complained that despite drivers at the Obra Spot Union paying Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) income tax, AMA insurance, and AMA road tax, they do not gain from the tax.
The driver in anger dammned the recommended solution to corrupt practices of MTTU personnel in the Brong Ahafo Region.
According to him, the recommendations outlined by the July 15, 2013 of the Daily Graphic that the service was transferring some MTTU officials from Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region to Agona Nyarkrom in the Central Region was no solution.
�Ah, if you have a bellyache and bandage it, does that solve the solution of bellyache which is not without but within your body�? he queried.
He therefore implored the police to find a lasting solution to the problem since �transferring a thief from one region to the other does not cure the thievery in him.�
Another driver at the station, Kofi Mensah, demanded that the said MTTU officials be fired from their post to serve as a lesson to other officers.
�Even if possible, their pictures should be published on front pages of newspapers for all to know and also serve as a deterrent to others including those in Accra who are bent on using threats of court action to charge huge sum from drivers,� he suggested.
He narrated that while loading Tema passengers at the Accra Shopping Mall in Accra, a police officer who claimed he had been loading at an unapproved location fined him GH₵37 with the threat of processing him for court if he did not pay.
There had also been times, he said, when passengers on board his 207 Mercedes Benz bus had been forced to alight abruptly because he refused to pay a fine imposed on him by an MTTU officer.
He said this was unfair, especially as police officers do not openly show themselves at their locations. But suddenly appear from their hideouts only to demand or face sanctions from the court.
�My sister (referring to this reporter), I think there could be times when the drivers could have just warned us instead of fining us, but in their interest they charge exorbitant fines from us.�
Such unnecessary fines, according to another commercial driver, Sumalia Sulemana, have led most drivers to quit driving due to the corrupt nature of police officials in the metropolis.
He mentioned some of his colleagues as one Fuesini and Taminu who have quit the noble profession of conveying passengers to and fro and are now being employed as factory hands in a company.
Sumaila cited the Ashaiman Bridge where some policemen always demand monies from them whenever they use that route. According to him, a colleague was also charged GH₵50 for a minor scratch.
�When you insist that a police officer on-board your vehicle pays the fare, then they suddenly find fault with your vehicle and fine you instead.�
<<Print>>