GHANA POLICE: DOES EVERY MINOR TRAFFIC VIOLATION DESERVE A JOURNEY TO THE COURT-HOUSE?
Folks, this is what transpired between myself and a police inspector on my most recent trip back home: My journey this time was a rather quick one and I had very little time at my disposal to accomplish whatever I went there to do.
On one of my rounds in Accra, I needed to make a U-turn on the very busy Ring Road in the vicinity of the renowned Internet cafe, BusyInternet. I saw a policewoman -- one Inspector Asamoah -- directing traffic and I duly complied with her signals. A few yards after driving past her, I saw on my left-hand side an entry onto the opposite side of the highway. I looked very carefully for a U-turn or a No-U-turn sign at this entry. There was none. I saw two poles, one on each side of the entry, with no signs on them. I didn't know what to make of them. So, though very unsure of the situation, I decided to very gingerly make my U-turn.
Little did I know that Inspector Asamoah was prayerfully waiting for me to commit my "crime". She abandoned her directing of traffic duty right away and quickly jumped onto the opposite side of the highway to flag me down. I obeyed her orders and parked my car on the curb. She demanded for my driver's license and car papers. I obediently delivered them to her. I tried my best to explain to her that there was no sign at the entry to guide me make a U-turn or not. She asked why I made the U-turn and why I did not follow all the other drivers. I told her there was no need for me to follow the other drivers because I wasn't going to their destination. That statement obviously got her exasperated and she started hurling invectives at me.
From that point on, she would not listen to anything I said. The next directive from her to me was that I go to Nima Police Station to be "processed" to go to court. I could not believe it! Drive to the police station and eventually end up in court for such a minor traffic violation? I was stunned. So I demanded to have my driver's license and car papers back to take to the police station for the so-called processing. She flatly refused to give me back my documents. I thought I was on another planet! You could imagine my fury. To be sure my driver's license and papers were safely in the hands of a real police officer, I requested to see her name tag and her police identification number. Oh no, it was like pouring insult upon injury. I caused a volcanic eruption!
Inspector Asamoah went completely berserk, huffing and puffing all over the place. She would not show me her name tag nor the identification tag. She could not believe my "audacity". Traffic on the highway came to a standstill as I insisted on having my documents back. I could not believe a police officer asking me to drive away without my driver's license and car documents. Incredible! To avoid exacerbating the traffic hold-up, I decided to quietly drive away to take care of my errands first and then go to the police station.
After my errands, I decided to go to the Nima Police Station in the company of one of my brothers, just in case I was to be handcuffed and hauled off to jail for challenging a police officer. I told my brother categorically that I suspected this whole charade was a trap to get innocent drivers to pony up some bribe and, therefore, I was not prepared to offer any bribe to get my documents back: I would rather go to court. By the time we got to the police station, Inspector Asamoah was already back at the station waiting patiently for me in her office! She welcomed us into her office and demanded to know what we were there for. I reminded her of her earlier directives to me. I informed her I had only two days left to depart Ghana and I needed to be "processed" quickly to go to court before my departure. It was obvious to her I was serious. I would not play her game.
Suddenly, the conversation turned into "Oh my brother........, my brother........, you made a mistake.........you should have followed all the other drivers......" I wasn't sure when I suddenly became her "brother". Folks, within fifteen minutes of walking into her office, Inspector Asamoah, sensing that I wasn't going to back down, gave up and handed over to me my California driver's license and car papers. I couldn't believe my triumph! It must have dawned on her how stupid she would look hauling me in front of a judge over this frivolous case. She must have realized that this time her luck had run out and the bribe was not going to be forthcoming!
Mr. Inspector-General of Police in Ghana, is it absolutely necessary to order drivers to the police station to be "processed" to go to court over minor traffic violations? Can you imagine how many man-hours are wasted in the process at your police stations and the courts? Don't you have stipulated on-the-spot fines for minor traffic violations? Do you have to drag every infraction to court? Or is this so-called "processing" your very clever bureaucratic set-up to collect bribes into the kitty? Is the threat to haul drivers to court your modus operandi to extort bribes from them? By the way, are the "signless" poles at the point of this incident the trap your traffic department has set up to haul in the bribes from compliant and vulnerable drivers? How come, in this modern age, you wouldn't just issue "tickets" for minor traffic violations, a practice which could easily generate lots of revenue for the installation of proper traffic signs? Are you afraid that innovation would deplete the bribe kitty?
Absolutely, this unnecessary waste of the public's precious time in the hopes of collecting bribes must stop. The time is now!
Los Angeles, California.
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