Bad conduct of a police officer

Somewhere last year, military personnel at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra were subjected to vitriolic attack by the public and a section of the media. Their crime was that they had forced trotro drivers and their mates to bath and fondle dead bodies in the hospital's mortuary. This was after all attempts to stop the drivers from parking at the main entrance to the hospital had proved unsuccessful.

The public outcry against the treatment of the drivers compelled the military authorities to set up a committee to investigate the issue. After the committee had submitted its report, which confirmed the incident, the military offered a public apology to the victims and promised to pay compensation.

Though the inhuman treatment meted out to the trotro drivers and their mates was condemnable, it still looks like drivers have not learnt any lessons from the 37 Military Hospital incident. They continued to load and offload passengers at the main gate of the hospital. The situation has now compelled the hospital administration to block almost half of the parking space in front of the hospital, to stop the drivers from parking at the entrance.

This action alone exposes the irresponsible behavior of trotro and taxis drivers on our roads. The Chronicle is therefore not surprised that a whole Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Tema, Mr. Dzam-Tse decided to do the unthinkable by handcuffing a taxi driver to his own car, and left him on the road side for two hours.

According to the story, which we have published at our center spread today, ASP Dzam-Tse claimed that the taxi driver, Christian Asamoah, parked in the middle of the road to pick passengers, thereby blocking the free flow of traffic.

Though the driver has denied the accusation that he stopped in the middle of the road to pick passengers, The Chronicle, would however not hold brief for the driver, since taxi and trotro drivers are doing the unthinkable on our roads. Any other road user who dares to challenge them would be subjected to verbal abuse.

But like the action of the military officers, this does not justify the decision by the senior police officer to handcuff the culprit to his own car, and left him for two hours.

This is clearly an abuse of the fundamental human rights of the driver, and the police officer could be cited for serious abuse of power, if his victim decides to pursue the case at the appropriate quarters. As a senior officer, Dzam-Tse should have known better- he should have sent the accused to the police station after he had handcuffed him, to profer appropriate charges against him.

As we noted earlier, the behavior of the commercial drivers on our roads is very irritating, but that does not give the law enforcement agencies the right to subject them to treatments that fall outside the laws of the country.

We are however happy that Dzam-Tse had noticed his mistake and gone to the drivers' union where the driver belongs, to apologize to him. But he must never repeat the behavior again, because it undermines the constitution of this country.