How Ghana Police is turning their stations into mechanic shops

Many Police Station in Ghana today, could be best described as Mechanic Shops as Investigators deliberately hold back investigations for weeks and months just to coerce car owners to give them money. It gladdens these heartless officers to keep 20 to 30 accident cars and the drivers’ licenses at their stations under guise of suspicious investigation(s) for weeks without any concrete reason.

Some of these cars have been detained for several months unattended to, and the police do not even allow the drivers to cover them against the scorching sun and ravaging rains, which have destroyed some of these vehicles beyond recognition in some cases.

Truly, some of these cars involved in major accidents and they were towed to these stations for the police to carry out what The Law has mandated them to do.

Undoubtedly, other vehicles have also been involved in some minor accident like bumper scratches, doors or body scratches, broken headlights or tail lights which can easily be resolved by the two parties with or without the police with comprehensive or third party insurance.

Honestly, all these vehicles you see at the police stations nationwide are under some sort of investigations as required by law.

But sadly, these investigators are knowingly delaying the investigation process for no other reason than what will allegedly go to them directly, [somewhere in Accra near Pig Farm, officers collected GHc150.00 from a taxi driver without receipt].

It’s as if the law does not work in Ghana, when it comes to police-driver issues because the driver is always at fault and any explanation from the driver will worsen his case.

These Investigators are well-known for ‘go-come, go-come, go-come’ as a well-calculated trick to provoke particularly, the commercial drivers who are perceived by these officers as illiterates.

‘Go-come, go-come’ hymn is interpreted among the drivers as ‘give me money to have your car or license back’ or have your car detained forever, and in many cases, if a driver does not pay that officer who has no receipt to give his car stays longer in their premises.

My own checks from The Trotro/Taxi Drivers revealed that some of the officers attached to The Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) extort money from the drivers daily for their own pocket.

Some of these officers in connivance with their station managers are enjoying this heinous game to the extent that, they careless about the repercussion of their actions on Ghana’s economy, and this atrocious allegation was confirmed by some of my police friends under conditions anonymity.

At the time of filing this sad story as told by an Accra based taxi driver, many drivers have their licenses lock up with the police, they have even misplaced some of them and these innocent drivers have no place to seek justice in their own country.

Hmmm!!!, The public wishes to know from the Ghana Police Service, how many working days does it take for a trained officer to write an accident report especially when the two parties have agreed to repair their cars with insurance claims?

Again, how many working days does an officer working with 37 DVLA Official to move from 37 Office to let say Kotobabi Police Station to conduct an examination on accident vehicle?

Answer to these questions will do a lot of good to the police administration for us to sing that song titled: “Service With Integrity”.

This article intends to draw the attention of The Police Administrations to the wrong perceptions against The Service.