Attention, Ghana transport Minister: Need to protect passengers from rogue taxi drivers and others!

Conceivably, taxi and other commercial drivers are always advised by their colleagues to be wary of criminal passengers – refusal to pay fare, stealing of takings or even carjacking. But what about the threat posed to passengers by criminal commercial drivers, especially rogue taxi drivers?

The term ‘rogue’ is usually paired with police officers who commit crime, as in ‘rogue cop’, so I think the same adjective, ‘rogue’ can be used to describe a taxi driver who steals from his passenger.

However, an ingenious strategy to help check such criminal acts against passengers, was proposed recently in a reader’s letter in the Daily Graphic. It earned my immediate support, because of personal taxi driver theft knowledge, and similar distressing accounts. A couple of years ago, my sister and I both fell victim to rogue taxi drivers, in separate incidents.

While in other places robbery of taxi drivers by unscrupulous passengers may be the experience, it appears that in Accra it’s a different story, that of passengers being robbed by rogue taxi drivers. Victims tend to be women as they use handbags to carry money, phone and other items.

Through media reports by victims, the crooks’ technique, or modus operandi, as the Latin term puts it, has been identified: a simple but usually effective ploy to steal from their unsuspecting passengers.

They start by jamming the door when the passenger wants to alight. If it’s the front passenger door, the driver then pretends to be trying to open the door, leaning across the passenger. While her attention is focused on the door, he quickly opens her handbag and steals purse or money, or both.

A con driver will usually be working with one or two accomplices. If it’s a shared taxi, one will be sitting in front, the second in the back. The front one will have his seat pushed back so much that the target will be forced to ask him to adjust his seat. While her attention is distracted during the seat adjustment, the second accomplice does the stealing.

With their mission accomplished, the door miraculously opens and they speed off with their loot. How then does a victim get help, when there’s no way of knowing even the car’s licence plate number?

This is why the conspicuously displayed reader’s letter in the Daily Graphic by a Jacob Antwi-Osei of Kumasi instantly earned my commendation. He suggests that all commercial vehicles should also have their number on a sticker, inside the vehicle.

The following is an abridged version of Mr Antwi-Osei’s letter, published in the paper’s September 4, 2023 issue, under the heading, Open Letter to Speaker, interior number plates in all commercial motor vehicles:

“As a concerned citizen, I believe that it is crucial to ensure safety and accountability on our roads by introducing legislation (emphasis added) that mandates the placement of number plates, in a sticker form, inside all commercial vehicles, visible to passengers.

“The reasons for this include: when needed, enabling passengers to readily identify the vehicle.

“I eagerly anticipate positive action towards making our roads safer for all passengers,” he concluded.”

In my view, this wonderful, original idea calls for collaboration by all the transport sector authorities and related supervisory agencies – including Parliamentary oversight, the DVLA and the Police – to make it happen.
Some examples of recent victims of the con men:

Accra resident Amanda Cartey says she nearly became a victim of one of the rogues, but she was lucky as she was able to outsmart the trickster, and escape with her money.

The following is a summary of Ms Cartey’s account, posted on the JoyOnline site on April 13, 2023:

“When we arrived at my destination and I tried to open the door, it would not open. My purse and bag were on my lap, while I struggled to open the door.

“Then he asked me for a coin, which he claimed could help with opening the door. I quickly grabbed my purse, which was lying halfway on my seat. I gave up and insisted that he open the door for me. Seeing that his trick had failed, he opened the door for me.

“Apparently, the drivers control the doors from where they sit, so after they steal your items, they ‘release’ the door.

“Later, I was shocked to learn from two friends that they had both encountered the same scam before, but in their cases, unfortunately, the drivers succeeded in stealing their phones and cash,” Ms Cartey wrote.

Another case with which I’m familiar, happened on August 31, 2023, and involved Ms X, who was a front seat passenger. At her gate, after she paid her fare and tried to open the door, it wouldn’t open.

When she asked the driver to get out and open it, he assured her it would open if she could lend him a pen to slide in the door opening. He leaned across her to manouvre the pen in the door opening. All the time of course her attention was on the efforts to open the door, and her handbag was on her lap. Eventually the door opened.

Later, she discovered to her dismay that an envelope with money in the bag was gone!

Probably there would have been a different ending if she had seen an interior number sticker.

Some weeks ago, a UK visitor to Ghana, ‘Afropean Monika’, too, became a victim of the jammed door trick. In a YouTube post on July 17, 2023, Monika wrote:
“I’ve just had my property stolen in Ghana by a legitimate-looking Ghanaian taxi driver.” Concluding her story, she said on future visits, if circumstances compel her to take a taxi, she will make sure she pays attention to the number plate.

Security experts usually advise that passengers should take note of a commercial vehicle’s number before they board it, but how realistic is this? This is why I find the interior number placement idea is so pragmatic! Moreover, if the number is also inside, there will be more opportunity for a passenger to scrutinize it.

In fact, my suggestion is that the interior number stickers should be pasted front and back, visible to all passengers to note down, or even memorise.

Also, significantly, such stickers would not cost much.

I see the interior stickers idea, as a measure similar to the rationale that requires some personnel to have name/number tags on their uniform.

Presumably, Mr Antwi-Osei’s Open Letter was addressed to the Speaker of Parliament because his proposal will need Parliamentary action, and thus Speaker Bagbin’s support.

But, again, it seems to me that other stakeholders, too, should help this brilliant idea to become part of Ghana’s commercial vehicles licensing regulations.

Therefore, I hope that Minister of Transport, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah; Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority CEO, Mr Kwasi Agyeman Busia; and COP Mr Francis E. Doku, Director-General of the Police Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate will lend their considerable weight to the Antwi-Osei suggestion. Particularly, to stop rogue taxi drivers robbing passengers with impunity.

Above all, I hope that the Parliamentary Roads and Transport Committee, too, will take note of the very real and persistent hazard posed by the rogues, and ensure that such a Bill is enacted.

Finally, thank you Mr Antwi-Osei; thank you Daily Graphic.
ajoayeboahafari@yahoo.com

Ajoa Yeboah-Afari

BBC correspondent (‘Focus on Africa’ programme, 1984 – 1996); President of the Ghana Journalists Association (October, 2003 – May, 2006); first Public Affairs Officer, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, (January, 1997 – September, 2002).