Driver jailed nine months for biting police officer’s fingers

The Assin-Fosu District Court has sentenced a 24-year-old commercial driver to nine months jail term for biting the fingers of a police officer while resisting arrest.

The convict, Ebenezer Nkoom, pleaded guilty to 13 different charges, including causing harm, unlawful harm, resisting arrest, and some seven road traffic offences.

He begged for leniency at the court, presided over by Abdul Majeed Illiasu.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Gilbert Ayongo said the complainants were General Constable Samuel Ayamba and Constable Sophia Essel, who was stationed at the Central North Regional Police Command of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD).

On Friday, April 7, at about 0630 hours, the complainants were detailed to manage traffic at the Assin-Fosu old market stretch of the highway where they spotted the convict driving a Hyundai Atos Taxi, with registration No. CR 1157-20.

The prosecutor said the convict stopped at an undesignated place to pick up passengers without reasonable consideration to other road users.

The police officers approached the driver and cautioned him not to pick up passengers at that place and asked him to leave.

He was, however, adamant and replied that he would continue to pick up passengers from that spot until the police arrested all other drivers who did the same.

Barely an hour later, Chief Inspector Ayongo said the convict returned to the same location, which led to his arrest.

While the officers joined his vehicle to be driven to the Regional MTTD, the convict rather drove them to an unknown destination and attempted to escape.

In the process of rearresting him, he resisted and bit the finger of General Constable Ayamba, “inflicting severe injuries on his hand,” the prosecutor said.

A motor rider who witnessed the incident quickly picked up the injured police officer and chased the convict, who drove the vehicle into a nearby bush, abandoned it, and absconded.

The two officers reported the incident to ASP Wonder Lumor, the Central North Regional MTTD Commander, who deployed two plain-clothed policemen and CID officers to the scene.

The prosecutor said about an hour later, the convict emerged in the company of two others, and he was arrested to assist with investigations.

A thorough check on the vehicle and documents revealed that he had failed to validate his driver’s license since Tuesday, February 1, 2022, and was driving a commercial vehicle at an unauthorised age of 24, instead of 25 years and above.

Also, he was driving a commercial vehicle without a spare tyre, warning signals, and fire extinguisher, among other things.