Broad Daylight Robbery

 Corruption is undoubtedly the bane of the backward slide of development of many African countries of which Ghana is no exception. This beast called ‘corruption’ has eaten deep into the fabric of every facet of many economies and is justifiably responsible for the myriad of economic woes many countries are plunged into.
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There has been public outcry over the massive corruption scandal brewing in public institutions, government and even churches.

The police institution has not been spared of the venom of this public outcry. Some people have even tagged the police institution as the most corrupt institution in Ghana. This has been concreted by a recent corruption perception index which placed the police institution as the most corrupt institution in Ghana followed by politicians.

The public perception may be justified, my personal encounter with the law enforcers have given me a course to believe this assertion. In fact the police institution need to be sanitized to rid of what may be described as broad daylight “robbery” by the men of security.

When the university went down in May 2013, the issue of “galamsey” had dominated headlines culminating in the President issuing directive to the national security to flash out all illegal ‘‘galamsey’’ operators in the country.

Before then I had not seen how this precious mineral is extracted which Ghana has become a hot spot for both local and foreign nationals. 

I came down to Kumasi, the place of my birth. On arrival I met Tesco, a childhood friend whom we used to engage in some childhood escapades such as pilfering meat from cooking pot, playing soccer together and other boyish pranks. The joy that greeted seeing each other for almost ten years was indescribable.

The spotlight as usual centered on life. He told me he was into gold buying business in some ‘galamsey’ areas in the Western Region He was preparing to go back the following week and I insisted going with him to have a personal eye view of how the much talked about gold is mined. He gladly agreed but cautioned jovially, “you would taste the rough side of life”

I was happy to move away from my comfort zone and also see what some people do for living. We picked a ‘trotro’ at Kejetia and the car zoomed off. The driver set his feet on the accelerator, we were only stopped by a number of police barricade mounted ostensibly to check expired insurance, speed vehicle, driving license and overloading. If my memory serves me correctly, we bypassed about five police check points from Kumasi to Asankragua. At each check point, all the driver needed to do was to put a cedi note in the middle of what was thought to be a driving license. Each time, the police on duty would skillfully remove the money to the dismay of any prying eye and would return the card to the driver. It was skillfully done which one would think it was part of their training. 

Upon reaching Nkakaa, a small town just after Bordie, we came across another police check point and as usual the policeman walked to the trotro van. He took the driver’s card in which they normally hid cedi notes offered to the police as “mandatory gifts” so that they would not scrutinize them too much, for  they often got away with minor offences such as expired license, expired insurance and overloading.

Now, the money fell from the card in the full glare of everybody to the ground, and immediately a gust of wind blew it under the vehicle. For a moment, he stood there irresolute as people stifled the urge to laugh. We dared not anger those men in arms, aware it would be an invitation for along drilling exercise on that side of the road. Belatedly, he bethought himself and looking very sheepish, handed the card back to the driver.

As the van pulled away slowly, the note few after it in the wind, and a young man sitting on the back row seat shouted, “Koti ooo! Koti”

This opened the floodgate for everyone to share his or her experience with their encounter with the law enforcers. The driver then laughed hysterically and said, “I don’t even have a driving license, what I flashed to him is a National Health Insurance Card. I have used this card to drive for about six months now since I misplaced my license’’.

Everybody in the car burst into uncontrollable laughter and the police took the centre stage of discussion until we got to our destination.

As much as the police are working day and night to safeguard the security of this nation, they should remember the adage that he who comes to equity must come with plain hand. They should not behave like the proverbial pig who after washing it body with clean water, goes back to the mud. We are grateful for their combat against nation wretches like armed robbers, confident tricksters and other miscreant who are bent on to make our society unsafe.

 The police authority must try to uproot the few bad nut who are dragging the name of the institution to disrepute. I was particularly elated when the authority threated to mass transfer officers in Brong Ahafo region for allegedly extorting money from drivers. God bless our homeland Ghana.

                                                       Writer:      Abdul-Karim Mohammed A.   

                                                        B.A. Communication studies.

                                                          University of Cape-Coast.

                                                          Email:Abdulkarimmohammeda@yahoo.com
     
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