Ghana Police Service, an institution that was recently tagged as the most corrupt institution in Ghana have not only denied such tag by words but also with action. In Ghana, it is a crime to bribe to a police officer. Suspects are either warned or placed behind bars.
A taxi driver has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for trying attempted to bribe a police officer with GHC 5 after committing a traffic offence.
David Ayensu was probably used to getting away with such offences by simply giving money to officers who arrested him.
But luck eluded him when a Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) officer of the Ghana Police Service arrested him.
He was driving with an expired driving licence when the officer pulled him over.
Speaking in an interview with Crime Check TV, he said;
“My renewed licence was seized by another police officer, so I was using an old one. I knew I had erred so when the officer took the expired licence, I quickly took out Ghc 5 and filed it in an AMA operational card and handed it to him,”
The MTTD officer gave Ayensu his money back and his licence, but that didn’t put an end to his problems.
Other members of the patriotic officer’s team told Ayensu to stop as he was ready to drive away after the bribe was turned down, but he disregarded them, believing that his earlier effort to bribe the first officer was sufficient justification for his release.
The other officer chased me with a motorbike, but I refused to stop even when some pedestrians prompted me. I crossed the yellow light at a point where the officer caught up with me,” he recounted.
The officers dragged him to their station where he was charged with careless and inconsiderate driving and then arraigned before a court. He pleaded guilty to the charges proffered against him.
“I was fined GHS1000, but I could not pay. I was jailed for two years at the Ankaful Main Prison.”
This punishment to this particular driver will set as a notice to all other drivers who tempt police officers with bribe. Also the tag on the police institution as the most corrupt institution in Ghana will be a mere say and not how it happens in reality.