The Kumasi Metropolitan Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service will embark on a special exercise to arrest and prosecute deviant drivers who flout road traffic regulations create panic among passengers and pedestrians in the Kumasi metropolis.
The exercise, which is meant to bring sanity on the road of the metropolis, will take place in the first and last week of every month.
The Ashanti Regional Commander of the MTTU, Deputy Superintendent of Police Oduro Abrokwa, who briefed the Daily Graphic on the exercise, said police had taken note of the problems being created by both commercial and private drivers in the Kumasi metropolis, and would thus not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those who committed road traffic offences.
He said while some drivers jumped the red light, others stopped at unauthorised places to pick up passengers, and thereby created massive traffic jam.
He said some of the drivers were also fond of parking their vehicles at unauthorised places, which sometimes resulted in accidents.
“ Many of them also have defective brakes systems and lights, while others use worn-out tyres, among others.
We want the drivers to be aware of our intentions, so that they would maintain their vehicles very well and also respect all road traffic regulations to avoid any arrest and prosecution during the exercise,” he noted.
Mr Abrokwa stressed: “We want to prompt them to do the right thing and refrain from the comments that police harass them anytime they commit road traffic offences”.
He expressed concern about indiscipline among a section of drivers in the metropolis: “They should always respect road safety regulations and not be prompted by the police before doing the right thing,” DSP Oduro said.
On drivers who jump the red light, he said it led to accidents, “because many pedestrians have lost their lives, with others sustaining serious degrees of injuries, they would not be spared when they are arrested”.
Mr Abrokwah explained that the police would mount cameras at vantage points to take shots of drivers who jumped the red lights, “so as to use them as evidence to prosecute them in court”.
“We hope to use the exercise to reform drivers. That is why the exercise will take place in the first and last weeks of every month. We expect that after the first week ,they will conform to the road safety regulations to bring sanity on the roads in Kumasi, but if they continue, then we will repeat the exercise in the last weeks of the month as well, ” he explained.
Mr Abrokwa warned that every driver who would be arrested during the exercise would be prosecuted, and stressed “those who intervene to plead for the release of those drivers would not be entertained either”.
“ Whilst we are on the roads conducting the exercise, others would be in the office, processing offenders for prosecution, so we will not give any room for anyone to intervene as had been the culture in Kumasi and other parts of the country in the past, ” he stressed.
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