IGP John Kudalor
The Police High Command has issued strict instructions for its officers and men to desist from carrying out motor vehicle checks henceforth.
The move is considered as a desperate attempt by government to win the votes of drivers, especially those driving commercial vehicles in the run-up to the December 7 general elections.
A restricted police wireless message available to DAILY GUIDE and issued by the Director General Police Administration, Commissioner of Police (COP) Ransford Moses Ninson, directed, “All motor checks in the country are suspended with immediate effect.”
He, therefore, asked that “All Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) personnel are to be used only for traffic management duties.”
A directive has thus been issued for all regional, divisional, district and unit commanders of the Ghana Police Service, to as it were, “ensure that no permits are issued for motor check duties,” while the police highway patrol units have also been restricted to check for only arms and ammunitions and drugs.”
The directive indicated that “vehicle documents and drivers’ licences are not to be inspected by highway patrol personnel.”
Politics
It comes at a time when the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) is said to have issued lots of motorbikes and unlicensed vehicles to their supporters ahead of the 2016 general elections.
Reports say most of these motorbikes have not been registered.
There is disquiet in the Ghana Police Service and other sister security agencies, who have questioned the propriety of the decision, coming at a time the country is heading for elections with crime on the ascendancy.
But Director Police Public Affairs Unit, Superintendent Cephas Arthur, has defended the move.
Justification
According to him, “Periodically that is what we do…for just operational purposes we ask our personnel to cease one police activity or the other; so we are saying that the practice of checking vehicles on the roads, inspect their documents and other things should be relaxed for traffic management.
“We want them to concentrate on traffic management; it is also partly informed by the fact that getting to this time we have a lot of traffic situation in our communities and we realize that police officers performing such duties are concentrating more on checking documentation at the expense of managing traffic.”
Aside that, he said, “The decision is also a check on their attitude” referring to the police personnel – especially officers and men of the MTTD.
However, Superintendent Cephas Arthur could not tell how long the suspension of vehicle checks would last, except to say that “the administration will come out; I don’t know, at the appropriate time the administration will come out again to say that now some success has been chalked in the area of managing traffic so let us reverse back.”
When asked if the directive was part of government’s efforts to win the votes of drivers ahead of the 2016 general election, this is what the Police PRO had to say: “Not at all…the Police Service is independent of government in terms of our work; maybe we are only paid by the government. We are not a political party.”
He denied the fact that the police sometimes take strict instructions from government officials, even though it is an open secret.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu