The District Chief Executive (DCE) for the South Dayi District Assembly under ex-President Kufour’s administration, Woyram Boakye Dankwa, was among several motor traffic offenders arrested last Friday during a road safety operation by the Volta Regional Police Command.
Ms Boakye Dankwa’s offence was that her driver was driving without a license; hence the two were detained along with other drivers as part of efforts by the police to reduce road accidents across the country.
She however told the police that the license was at home.
Woyram was therefore made to park her green Mercedes Benz with registration number GT 6384X. She was later asked to go but insisted she would not leave because she had sent for the license, to prove that the driver had the license but only forgot it at home.
Some of the offences detected during the unannounced operation included driving without license, worn-out tyres, expired road worthy certificates and insurance, inconsiderate driving and over-loading.
Some of the drivers however thought it was the usual police checks on the road and therefore tried to bribe some of the personnel who were conducting the checks.
One Chief Inspector was forced to punch a driver after the driver chased him all over the place with money and after the officer refused to take it, the driver tried pushing it into his pocket, compelling the officer to punch him.
In another case, a driver with car registration number GW 8349X attempted giving another inspector GH¢1, but the inspector rejected the offer, exclaiming, “Master, can’t you see the Regional Commander here?”
This however did not scare the driver who was bent on giving the GH¢1 to the inspector. Out of anger, the inspector shouted, “Foolish man, you want to spoil my job”, attracting laughter from other road traffic offenders who were standing by.
Over 24 vehicles were impounded in both operations at Goviefe on the main Kpeve-Hohoe roads and the main Kpeve-Peki roads.
Volta Regional Police Commander DCOP David Nennyi Ampah-Bennin told the media that the operation was a collaboration between the police and the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to check for worn-out tyres, poor lighting system, effective brake system, invalid drivers’ license, good eyesight of drivers and other things that posed as threats to road users.
He said the operation would be a regular one outside the lorry stations and offenders would be arraigned before court. Regional MTTU Commander ASP Frederick Lumor appealed to the drivers to do the right thing so that they would not have problems with the law.
He urged them to ensure regular maintenance of their vehicles to make their lives and those of their passengers’. He mentioned that when tyres were worn out, it affected the ability of the vehicles to stop when the brakes were applied. He also appealed to passengers to prompt the drivers whenever they were over-speeding, overloading or doing anything that would put their lives in danger.
The Acting Regional DVLA Officer said some drivers were used to giving photocopies of their licenses to police when it was demanded, adding that the practice was not right. He said they should rather keep the photocopies so that when the original licenses got missing or seized by any police officer, they could bring the photocopy to the DVLA for processing of new ones.
Source: Daily Guide - Ghana
