Stunned! armed cop drunk in trotro

Thousands of Ghanaians yesterday viewed with resentment on both social and traditional media a gun-wielding drunken police officer caught on video in a public transport soliloquising.

The video of the drunken armed officer trended on social media for several hours.

The video received several bashing and offensive comments from angry Ghanaians who washed it with many blaming the police hierarchy for the many indiscipline and corruption in the police service.

The lady, who secretly recorded the officer, wrote this on her Facebook page along with the video: “This policeman joined the troski I was in around Ridge en route [to] Madina… He is drunk! He has a rifle! Other passengers were making fun of the situation but I was damn horrified I had to alight and pick another troski. These are the kind of people in charge of our safety?”

The officer in the said video, who seemed to have committed certain offence against his superiors was seen in the video trying to decipher whether what he did was wrong or right.

Officer Boakye (as he called him in the video) stated in unblemished Akan “ma ye free koraa, se me ne obi nni asem, omo se me Boakye me kooso, ade a ye kooye……. eno ara ne se me de raflle no koma no a me wie a m’afa me kaa me ko me fie, mehye me dem na wo kooso wo me dan mu a eho na wo behu se ‘yes’…. se sesei omo anya me.”

Which literally translated, “I am even free, I don’t have any qualm with anyone, they say me Boakye I cause trouble, even when we went ….the only thing is to go and give the raffle to him and when am done I will pick my car and go home…if am in my room and you dare come there and cause confusion that is where you will see that ..yes… they have gotten me now”

At that instant one of the passenger tried to gaze at him which he retorted in Akan “Ma nhwe m’anim, w’anim tantan” (don’t look at my face, you have an ugly face) which attracted some laughter from the passengers.

Though he was seen gazing on his mobile phone trying to read the time, the seemingly drunk officer asked “abo sen koraa?” (what says the time?) of which a passenger responded “it’s almost 4pm”

Many Ghanaian after watching the video called for disciplinary action against the officer caught in the video.

However, security expert Dr Kwesi Aning, said the officer could go unpunished “if he is well-connected with officialdom”.

According to him such loopholes were the bane of the Ghana Police Service as far as ensuring discipline was concerned.

According to him, “there has been an institutional culture of limited punishment and people coming to plead when people fall foul; it is representative of the structural/institutional challenges”.

The Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, was of the view that: “If this character in this film even is found to be drunk and armed and he is well connected, ACP Eklu and his disciplinary team cannot do anything and that is the challenge that we are facing in bringing the transformation that we need in the Ghana Police. Dr Agorso, who is driving this transformation, is a world-class police officer, but I can also imagine the unnecessary and annoying interference”.

Dr Aning therefore called on the Police Council to act in order to transform the law enforcement body.

“The Police Council hardly ever utters a word when we want the Council to provide the direction and the visionary leadership that we want,” he said.