Scores of drivers, particularly commercial drivers who ply on the Accra-Battor Aveyime-Mepe road are not happy with the posture of police officers on that stretch of the road checking traffic offences.
Today’s discreet inquiries have uncovered that the police officers, particularly those at Badzorhe near Tsopoli on Accra-Afloa road, illegally collect money from jittery drivers who are more than willing to pay any amount charged by the police than to be dragged to court for breaking traffic regulations.
The modus operandi of the police officers, Today’s sorties revealed, was to disguise themselves and use vehicles which were not embossed with police logos for their operations.
The police officers, Today’s findings further showed, carried out this criminal practice on Tuesdays and Fridays.
And according to sources, the reason is that those days are market days for some communities in the Volta and Greater Accra regions like Battor, Aveyime and Ada.
Today established that drivers who refused to grease the palms of the police officers were often charged for offences they might have not necessarily committed.
Some of the offences, this reporter learnt, were so minor that the drivers should have been cautioned instead of arrest.
Most drivers however, the sources told Today, preferred bribing the police irrespective of the magnitude of their offence.
“…. we don’t want to waste time by going to courts all the time over trivial issues”, some worried drivers averred.
Meanwhile, a deep throat at the police headquarters told this paper that monies accrued from the extortion spree of the officers were usually given to some high-profile police officers for them to take their share at the end of every week.
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