Police personnel who stand by the road side between Ashaiman and Kpong in the Eastern Region, have increased the illegal fees they take from commercial drivers who ply that stretch from GH¢1 to GH¢2.
Driving towards Kpong from Ashaiman, a driver is likely to meet four different police personnel with a Mahindra van positioned at about 200 meters before the Afienya toll booth, 9 speed humps from the Afienya Police Station, about a kilometer of the Afienya Police Station and a few distance to the Akuse Junction.
A commercial driver who failed to pay the new illegal fee was delayed, and was made to follow police personnel from one vehicle to the other whose drivers themselves had their own problems to sort out with the police who might have stopped them.
Some drivers who spoke to The Herald newspaper at the Kpong Station said that they always had to pay GH¢10 or more each day they commuted between Kpong and Ashaiman, explaining that they paid GH¢2 as toll to and fro and then paid same amount to police personnel who stopped them on the road.
The situation is not different between Kpong and Odumasi-Krobo where some police personnel position themselves in front of the Manya Krobo Secondary School to extort money from commercial drivers who ply that route. Commercial drivers who ply that stretch pay GH¢1 and the fee even depends on the nature of the vehicle and how heavily the vehicle had been loaded with goods.
Traveling between Kpong and Ashaiman, one is likely to see heavily loaded trucks broken down and parked on the shoulders of the highways, some a stone’s throw from where some of the police are positioned for their extortion, consequently making one wonder if the police really have the safety of commuters at heart.
In fact, going through a driver’s licence by some of the police personnel on these stretches are smoke screens, and the earlier the hierarchy of the service weed out such disgraceful personnel in the bud, the better for the nation and commuters.