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Drivers should not be
bankers for police - Deputy Attorney General
Accra, July 19, Ghanadot/GNA - Deputy Attorney General and
Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr Kwame Osei-Prempeh, has
cautioned law enforcement agents to be wary of extortion of
monies from road traffic offenders as Parliament passed the
Road Traffic Amendment Bill.
He said the 90 per cent reduction in penalties for road
traffic offences under the amended law should make offending
road users pay their penalties to the state rather than
diverting them into individual pockets of some law
enforcement officers to avoid prosecution.
The object of the Bill, which Parliament passed before it
rose for recess on Friday, is to reduce the number of
penalty units for each motor traffic offence to 10 per cent
of the penalty units specified in the Road Traffic Act, Act
683 of 2004.
Thus, an offence attracting 100 penalty units (GHC 1,200)
will now attract 10 penalty units (GHC 120).
Also, prison sentences for motor traffic offences in the
parent act have been reduced considerably by one third.
Mr Osei-Prempeh said most drivers and road users’ inability
to pay fines paved way for bribery of police and other law
enforcement agents and this had further led to more people
being sent to jail over minor offences to exacerbate the
problems of already overcrowded prisons.
He said the huge fines contained in the original law in 2004
had not necessarily decreased road traffic accidents even
though the fines as then provided in Act 683 were intended
to serve as deterrent to curb the level of indiscipline on
the roads of Ghana.
"However, instead of the fine serving as a deterrent, it was
so exorbitant that it rather created an avenue for some
drivers to pay bribes to some law enforcement officers to
avoid prosecution. This defeated the purpose for which the
Road Traffic Act, 2004 (Act 683) was enacted," Report of
Committee on Roads and Transport said.
The Report also said the Road Traffic Amendment Bill would
not create any vacuum in the parent Act, as the number of
penalty units for offences specified in the Schedule of the
referral is consistent with the number of penalty units for
the same offences specified in the original act.
The Committee viewed the reduction in prison sentences as a
step in the right direction to compel offenders to pay fines
rather than being imprisoned.
Mr Osei-Prempeh said the President was worried about the
number of person that languished in jail for traffic
offences.
Also, there have been calls by the public to the Chief
Justice to temper justice with mercy in meting out
punishment to road traffic offenders.
He urged drivers to educate themselves on the law to avoid
being taken advantage of by some law enforcements agents.
"If any police officer takes money from any driver, the
driver should find a way to take his or her number and
report that officer to the Ministry of Justice.
Mr Osei-Prempeh promised that his outfit would team up with
the transport owners’ associations and drivers’ unions to
get drivers and other road users educated on the amended
bill.
GNA
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