Police mounts cameras to arrest traffic offenders
In order to arrest recalcitrant motor cyclists and drivers on the road, the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service has employed the use of hidden cameras at vantage points on our roads.
The move, according to the Operations Officer at the Accra Central MTTD, ASP Sulemana Sulley Jnr, would enable the MMTD to arrest and punish motorists who often sped off when the traffic turns red.
Speaking to The Mirror in an interview, he noted that in barely two weeks into the implementation of the policy, 87 traffic offenders had been arrested of which motorcycle riders were the worst offenders.
“With this figure, 50 of them have been sent to court and out of this number, 48 of them have already been convicted. Some of them have been fined, others have received prison sentences while others too are being processed to be sent to court”, he noted.
He observed that in the first quarter of 2016, over 500 people lost their lives as a result of careless driving and blatant disregard for road traffic regulations by motorist said motorcyclists.
Okada menace
ASP Sulley Jnr also noted that efforts by the police to arrest and punish Okada operators had not yielded the expected results because of lack of cooperation from the public.
According to him, by law, the police could only arrest a motor rider when the police had sufficient evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the person used the motor for commercial purposes.
In this case, there must be an evidence of exchange of money but since people who patronised Okada business were as guilty as the riders themselves, most Okada passengers often defended their riders making the police helpless.
“Sometimes, you arrest an Okada operator and he tells you the person whom he is carrying is a friend or relative. As a result of this, you cannot prosecute the person without any evidence of wrongdoing,” he explained.
ASP Sulley Jnr, however, assured the public that the police would not relent on its efforts to bring to an end the menace and advised the public to desist from patronising the illegality.
