Fallout Of Kobby Acheampong's Over-Speeding: MTTU On Strike

Reports reaching peacefmonline.com say officials of the Motor Traffic and Transport Union (MTTU) in the Central Region have embarked on a sit-down ‘strike’ action.

The strike was borne out of the detention of seven (7) of their members who are currently under investigations for flagging down a government appointee who was said to be over-speeding.

The 7 MTTU personnel, on duty at Ekumfi-Asafa on the Mankessim stretch of the Accra/Cape Coast road, in the afternoon of Sunday, October 2nd, stopped Deputy Minister for the Interior, Kobby Acheampong for allegedly violating a road traffic regulation; over speeding.

Chief Inspector Ababio, Sergeant Dugbatse, Constable Addison and four (4) others whose names are not readily available said they were astonished at the blatant abuse of road regulation by the motorist whose identity they initially did not know.

“He was cruising way past the acceptable and recommended speed range. In fact the speed can best be described as ‘Lord I’m coming home’ since the driver could lose his life in the event of the slightest application of the brake…so we signaled him to pull over and he obliged, albeit with some difficulty,” PeaceFM’s Central Regional correspondent, Kwabena Marfo said citing officials of the MTTU.

When asked if he was aware that his manner of driving posed a danger to other motorists, the Deputy Interior Minister is said to have questioned the temerity of the police to stop him.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked

“No, but we are just doing our job and you happen to have flouted a road regulation so “park well” since you stopped in the middle of the road,” one of the MTTU official replied.

Quite infuriated at the audacity of the MTTU officers who, according to reports, were hell-bent on booking him for over-speeding, Kobby Acheampong is said to have called a top official (the IGP, Paul Tawiah Quaye) on phone and reported the conduct of the MTTU personnel on duty for allegedly insulting him and later drove off.

More drama was to follow when a couple of hours later (around 9pm) a group of military cum police personnel (from the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) Bureau Unit of the Ghana Police Service) storm the residence of the afore-mentioned MTTU officials hauled to the police headquarters in Accra for ‘misconducting’ themselves before the minister.

Meanwhile, the Central Regional MTTU Commander, Superintendent Paul Aduhene, who spoke in an interview on PeaceFM’s Kokrokoo Morning Show could not however ascertain the veracity of the claim by his officers except to say they (his officers) were alleged to have misconducted themselves with one said to have insulted the deputy minister.

He, however, admitted that the 7 MTTU officers on duty on the day of the incident were rounded up by PIPS officers after the Deputy Interior Minister lodged a complaint against them for insulting behaviour.

“…we are conducting investigations into the professional misconduct of the police officers and will only give details of the incident after the investigations,” the Central Regional MTTU Commander said.