Minister Cages Driver� Demands Payment Of GH�6,000 Before Release

A 43 year old tipper-truck driver is languishing in police cells without bail, on the orders of the Central Regional Minister, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, after allegedly being subjected to severe beatings by the regional political head, his bodyguard and driver on the Winneba-Kasoa road Tuesday afternoon. Yaw Owusu, a worker with Henry Goldberg Haulage, The Chronicle learnt, has been directed by the Minister to pay the cost of damage done to his vehicle, with registration number GB 265 � 12, before being released from the Kasoa police cells. The cost of damage, according to analysis conducted by the Body and Paint Workshop of Toyota Ghana Company Limited is estimated at GH�6,437.24 Available information to The Chronicle indicates that the tipper truck driver was returning to Accra with his truck fully loaded with sand, when he met his ordeal at the hands of the Central Regional Central Minister and his boys, in the full glare of other road users at a location near Senya Breku. The tipper truck driver was accompanied by two assistants, Ernest Kwabena Kyeremeh and Kojo Okyere. Ernest Kyeremeh, in an interview with The Chronicle, said an accident had occurred on the Winneba-Kasoa road, resulting in a traffic jam, when all of the sudden the minister�s vehicle allegedly drove carelessly past the truck, and stopped in front of it. �So our driver [Yaw Owusu] questioned the minister�s driver why he drove that way. Suddenly, a policeman [minister's bodyguard] came out of the vehicle and walked towards our driver, opened his door, and pulled him out of the car, while the truck was still in motion and subjected him to severe beatings. �As a result, we could not stop the truck and so it drove straight into the minister�s Land Cruiser and caused damaged to the right front door,� he narrated. According to him, while the bodyguard was assaulting the driver, the minister allegedly joined the fray with his driver, before pulling him (Yaw Owusu) into his Land Cruiser and had him locked up at the Kasoa Police Station.