The force for good, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), has been accused by commercial transport operators of fleecing hundreds of millions of leones from them on a daily basis, going as far as asking, ‘where does all that money go? We need traffic officers or the IG of police to show us the money.’
The drivers have blamed the force for good for all the bad things happening to them, adding that traffic officers are the main reason for all the corruption affecting both the SLP and commercial vehicle operators.
On a drive from Waterloo, this news medium observed that our bus driver forked out a total of Le60, 000 at roadblocks mounted by members of the traffic department of the SLP before reaching the final destination at East End Police.
Our driver paid Le10, 000 at Tombo Park, where those collecting the sum alleged that Le5, 000 goes to the drivers’ union and the other Le5, 000 goes to the police. Asked if there is an official contract between the SLP and the drivers’ union that stipulates that the SLP should receive such an amount, those collecting said amount asked us to ‘ask the police.’
Trekking on, our driver paid Le20, 000 at Shell, another Le20, 000 at Cline Town and Le10, 000 at Patton Street. That amounted to Le60, 000 for just one commercial vehicle.
‘Now imagine that you are talking about one way into town, not the other roads commercial vehicles use where there are also mounted roadblocks by traffic officers. Let us say if these officers collect the Le60, 000 per vehicle per day from, say, 100 vehicles, we are talking about Le6 million a day. A thousand vehicles translate to Le60 million a day for the roadblocks we went through. Imagine we have not included non-commercial vehicles in this tally. Where does all that money go?’ asked our driver.
Police mounted roadblocks to catch unlicensed vehicles and drivers, including un-roadworthy vehicles, are a common practice around the world. The police collect valuable revenue for their city, ward or district which is then deposited into the national coffers. But not so the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), according to what was observed, and what drivers and passengers had to say. This medium watched police officers collecting said charges from drivers without producing tickets to substantiate each encounter.
When an officer was asked for his revenue book by a passenger, she was told that the SLP does not have enough tickets for all traffic officers. ‘So, how do you keep track of all the money you collect here?’ she asked. Responding, the officer said, ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, lady!’
Drivers this medium spoke to said they are tired of having to fork out such huge amounts of money a day without seeing any improvement in either the condition of the roads they use or the officers that collect the money.
‘First of all, we need to know if the police have official areas where they mount roadblocks to catch or inspect commercial vehicles. That said; we will expect that for such locations they are issued with tickets to give violating drivers. If such tickets are given out, then where does all that money go? Do they go to the IG of police or any other person or account?’ asked a passenger.
The lady said the police have a lot to do to convince the people of Sierra Leone that they are trying to break away from the perception the citizens of Sierra Leone have of them as the most corrupt public institution in the country.
‘And such behaviours are not helping. How are we supposed to fork out such money every day and still be able to pay our master money before paying ourselves?’ our driver complained.
He said the corrupt behaviour of the traffic officers is the reason for all the issues affecting driving across the country.
‘Because drivers know that if you pay an officer a certain amount he or she would let you ply that road, we have a lot of unlicensed drivers and un-roadworthy vehicles on the road. Compounding the situation is the fact that many commercial vehicles, especially motorbikes and buses are owned by current or ex-police officers and soldiers. When such vehicles are pulled over, you will see the driver calling the owner. When the arresting officer speaks to such a person over the phone, all you will see is the driver being let off the hook without paying a penny. What is more corrupting than that?’ he added.
Meanwhile, passengers in our vehicle blamed traffic officers for all driving related issues across the country.
‘Police are responsible for the lack of respect drivers and the public have of them. Who will respect someone they bribe? Members of the police force are probably the most disrespected public servants. You don’t see people disrespecting or trading punches with members of the armed forces. When you consider all the other issues affecting the police such as their friendship with criminals, especially drug dealers, officers being used by individuals to arrest and jail others without charges, and some cases not seeing the light of day in court, we can’t be blamed for thinking that all the money these officers are collecting are going into individual pockets, even up to the very IG of police,’ said one passenger.
Meanwhile, when this medium called the deputy public relations officer, commonly called Media Two, of the SLP to get their side of things, we were told to bring in evidence to substantiate the people’s claims.