Drama on highway

A scene reminiscent of one of the popular Shakespearean plays was ?acted? along one of the nation?s busiest highways recently when, as if by design, all four duty personnel posted to a toll gate simultaneously fell asleep; leaving motorists to have a field day.

The ?drama? took place in the late morning hours of Friday 4 April, this year at the new tollgate along the Tema-Akosombo highway, between Michel Camp and Afienya.

No one could tell precisely how long the three policemen and revenue collector had been sleeping, but by 10.19 am when a Benz Sprinter bus with registration number GT 8014 T, which plies between Accra and Ho got to the gate, all 25 passengers on board, including the driver, had every good reason to feed their eyes on what later occupied their mind for the rest of the trip.

It took the bus driver some real horn tooting to awaken the four and pay his toll. While two of the cops were having their nap in one of the cozy police cars packed eight metres away, the third officer dozed off near the collecting point.

But the climax of the whole theatrical fun was on-lookers noticed that even the civilian who was collecting the toll from passing drivers had also gone far away into dreamland. After the laughter and jokes that immediately greeted the strange scene had died down, a section of passengers began arguing saying ?the workload might have been too much for the apparently tired men.? Some insisted that due to the inadequate personnel, many policemen and women are made to work for hours on end and run shifts at random, hence their inability to cheat nature.

Others also condemned the act in no uncertain terms, referring to it as ?irresponsibility at its best.?

Interestingly, the marathon brainstorming session was brought to an abrupt halt when an aged woman in her sixties spoke her mind on the matter.

She pointed out that with the help of juju powers, a spell can be cast by a notorious armed robber or smuggler can easily cause security men at checkpoints to sleep off, no matter the place and time.

According to the confident looking woman who immediately gained the attention of the people from both sides of the divide, she had seen instances where policemen sent to arrest suspects rather went and dine with the wanted men. She said she was not surprised at what happened that day.

But all said and done, the revenue that the state stood to lose from this unfortunate development is what some people find rather disturbing. In this instance, even though no one could tell for how long the nap had lasted, it is surely not the best thing to happen to revenue generation sources in this country.