A yet to be identified policeman has shot a truck driver’s mate in the leg over an alleged refusal to pay bribe at the Inchaban police barrier.
The victim, John Essandoh, has since been sent to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra for the bullet wounds to be treated.
The shooting incident.
The 25year old mate and the driver were transporting an empty container from the Tema Harbour to Takoradi on a trailer when they were stopped at the Inchaban Police barrier for snap inspection over what they suspected to be a defect in one of thr trucks taillight.
In the ensuing conversation, the policemen allegedly demanded an amount of 150 cedis which the driver declined. After what was a prolonged haggling, the driver sped off much to the disgust of thr police officer.
Without delay, one of the cops on duty drove in pursuit of the duo and found their truck parked by the roadside at Kojokrom. However, the cop only found the mate with the driver nowhere in sight. In what soon turned into a heated conversation, the police officer reportedly shot the drivers mate in the leg, leaving him in a pool of his own blood.
He then took the victim to the Effia Nkwanta hospital with the help of some people who rushed to the scene after hearing the gunshot. However, the victim was immediately referred to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital due to the severity of the bullet wound.
The alleged bribery incident.
According to the truck driver, who only gave his name as Nii, his mate was the one driving the truck when they got to the Inchaban barrier around 2:00 a.m. on Saturday. He says the police signaled them to stop and park well for inspection, an instruction they obliged without delay.
“We waited for the policeman to come to where the car was parked. He checked our documents and said the vehicle income tax had expired. He said what we had was for the third quarter meanwhile we are in the fourth quarter,” Nii said.
“I told the officer to check the documents well because it had not expired and when he checked again he realised that we had the fourth quarter sticker on the vehicle as well as the third quarter sticker. So he advised us to remove the expired third quarter sticker from the windscreen of the truck because it can mislead other officers” he added.
“The policeman then said we had a defective tail light but he did not really dwell on that. He asked us what we brought for him. I gave him 5 cedis but he said that was too small. I then gave him 10 cedis but he still insisted it was small.
“He went to sit down at the barrier and demanded for our waybill which we gave him. He then demanded for 150 claiming we make a lot of money but I pleaded with him for close to two hours to let us go because we were tired, but the policeman did not budge,” the driver narrated.
The driver said he then left the waybill with the policeman and went to move the truck to Kojokrom where he lives.
According to Nii, he left the truck in the care of his mate after parking the truck and went home to rest. A few hours later – about 4:00 a.m – he was informed of a shooting incident in his truck so he rushed to the scene only to be told the victim was his mate and that he has been rushed to the hospital and later lodged a report at the police station.