IGP Christian Tetteh Yohuno
The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) personnel have over the years earned a notoriety for bribe-taking, unenviable image and impression unfortunately synonymous with the law enforcement agency.
Corruption indexes over the years continue to put the police at worrying notches on the graft chart, the MTTD being the source of the negative position.
Some police officers perform excellently even as some have lost their lives while serving the country. It is regrettable therefore that the bribe-takers in the ranks have left such scum on the image of the whole police institution whose role in keeping us safe cannot be denied.
Regardless of the bad nuts in the police who have made bribe-taking their occupation without thinking about the repercussions of this on the Service, we still count on the police to keep the citizenry safe from criminals. The effects of a police-less society can only be imagined.
Being a critical appendage of the justice administration system, the police play a critical role and so everything must be done to ensure that it sheds this negative image to restore the lost public confidence.
In previous years, motley initiatives were conceptualised as possible initiatives to stop bribe-taking by police officers in the MTTD fold. One of such suggestions was the introduction of the ticketing system by which defaulting motorists will pay a fine to the state on the spot. It did not leave the drawing board although it operates in the developed countries.
It was discovered that the concept would be abused by some bad traffic cops who could charge below the prescribed fine and pocket same.
In today’s edition, a story about a broad initiative to stop traffic cops from seizing drivers’ licences, which they often do, has been announced.
The success of this programme would inure to the image of the current Inspector General of Police (IGP), who is said to be at the forefront of this initiative.
For the bad nuts in the police, this would spell doom for their bribe-taking obsession as they would no longer be able to seize drivers’ licences. They seize the document and order especially commercial drivers to meet them at the charge office.
Motorists endure stressful moments at the hands of bullying traffic cops who flex their muscles just so they can take so much as bribes before returning the licences to their owners.
Sometimes unauthorised checkpoints are created to further the bribe-taking sprees. The first thing they demand of drivers when they stop them is the hard copy of their licences, which, when collected, are pocketed.
The cops then turn their attention to other motorists they have ordered to stop, leaving those with their licences seized stranded as it were. The cops at this time will demand something high. A haggling follows until a final settlement. Time wasting is the major inconvenience for motorists when they are trapped by these bad cops.
In a digitised age, we must leverage upon this technological development to make life comfortable for all of us, more so since this is working elsewhere.
Motorists must memorise their licence numbers or keep them handy so they can furnish traffic cops with such details upon request, no more surrendering of hard copies of drivers’ licences.
While we applaud the IGP for the initiative, we ask that the necessary logistics needed to make the novelty work should be made available to the traffic cops. We also demand that channels be opened for aggrieved motorists to report cops who disregard the directive and insist on seizing hard copies of licences.
IGP Yohuno bravo for the policy. All must support the initiative.