By Frank Mensah and Richard Owusu-Achaw

THE ASHANTI Regional Police Command has instituted investigations into complaints of extortion by the Regional Highway Patrol Unit headed by ASP Yusif Mahmud. The probe, according to Chief Inspector Mohammed Tanko, the Public Relations officer (PRO) of the Regional Police Command, follows persistent reports against the team by drivers in particular. He told TRUTH in response to enquiries that on acting on complaints against the Highway Patrol Team it (patrol team) was reshuffled pending investigations even though no concrete evidence were found against the team.

The complainants allege that the Highway Patrol Team duplicate the duties of MTTU personnel and openly extort monies from drivers instead of checking crime. The Highway patrol Unit has three vehicles namely: GP 2399, GP 2377 and GP2401 alternately assigned to G/Constable Richard Amankwah (42134), L/Cpl. Kwadwo Awuah (37324), G/Sgt Charles Kipo (31928) and L/Cpl Henry Danso (36457) as drivers and which officially ply such routes as the Kumasi-Accra, Kumasi-Techiman, Kumasi-Sunyani, Kumasi - Obuasi, Kumasi-Mampong and Kumasi-Bibiani on a day and night (24-hour patrol service). On a rainy Thursday, July 19, 2010, our investigators trailed the Highway patrol team which used the car with registration number GP 2399 driven by G/Constable Richard Amankwah which took off at 5.28 am from the Central Police Station in Kumasi to Asempanaye between Nkwankwa and Abofour in the Offinso North District. Some commercial drivers we talked to confided in our investigative team that it was a regular practice by the highway patrol team on market days.

In July this year, the paper confronted ASP Yussif Mahmud, the Unit Commander with its findings after days of monitoring but he gave a spirited defence that Highway Patrol Team stops drivers and vehicles on the Highways to check whether they are carrying weapons, banned drugs or anything which could be used to commit crime since it was their duty to check crime on highways. The complainants say their investigations into the practice revealed that the Team even though the team abhorred the practice they could not afford to stop it because the Police Commander had ordered the Highway Patrol Unit Commander to pay a levy of GH¢1,000.00 and GH¢800.00 per week to him and the Second in Command respectively.

Reacting to these allegations on behalf of the Command, Chief Inspector Tanko denied that the Ashanti Regional Commander and his Second in Command as well as other police officers receive their share of the money after the alleged extortion by the Highway Patrol Team from drivers. “For over four months now we have not recorded any Highway robbery in the Ashanti Region which means the Highway Patrol Team is effective on the ground”, he stressed.

Meanwhile, ASP Yussif Mahmud has confirmed that the said vehicle indeed belonged to the Highway Patrol Unit and that it is unfortunate if the Team indeed extorted monies from drivers. He gave the assurance that he would see to it that the practice (extortion) was stopped but further surveillance has proved contrary.