Indiscipline commercial drivers and criminals in Kumasi are having a field day charging unapproved transport fares and perpetuating crime with impunity after 5pm each day.
The worrying phenomenon has become unbearable for workers, traders, and students who use commercial vehicles in the central business districts (CBDs), particularly Kejetia, Pampaso, Dr. Mensah, Adum, and Roman Hill.
According to Press1News.com reporter, after 5 pm, security personnel tasked with maintaining order in the CBDs do not operate, allowing these deviant commercial drivers to charge illegal transport fares and criminals to commit crime at will.
Apart from being forced to pay unapproved fares, commuters are exposed to pickpockets who, under the guise of loading these commercial vehicles, snatch mobile phones, luggage, and personal effects during rush hour.
Students and women are the most vulnerable to this recent culture of impunity and are subjected to physical assaults when they attempt to reclaim their belongings from the criminals.
Last Saturday, around 6:15 pm at Kejetia, a level 200 female student of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), whose name has been withheld, was assaulted after one of these criminals, operating with impunity, snatched her phone.
The victim, who was almost speechless after recovering from a heavy slap, narrated her ordeal to Atta Kofi, a trader at Gate Nine of the Kejetia Central Market.
She explained that she was sandwiched by two guys who had jumped off a sprinter bus heading towards the Kejetia Roundabout, and one of them took away her phone.
When she tried to retrieve it, the other slapped her, and both fled.
Atta Kofi hinted that criminals have been operating in and around the market square, but authorities have failed to address the situation.
He therefore appealed to the City Mayor, Hon. Richard Ofori-Agyeman Boadi, and security chiefs to make an effort to restore sanity after 5 pm when workers, traders, and students are heading home after a day’s activities.
Press1News
