It’s the second week of work, I haven’t got a laptop yet and using someone’s logon details so I have no real work to yet apart from reading. Yes I know there is a security issue but I am just doing what I am told, and well it allows me to blog until my heart is content. I am sure when the work does pile up I will not have this luxury again so I am making the most of it.

I have been following the story of the young man who shot down those kids in California. Like what can be going on upstairs that would make a guy pick up a gun and take people’s lives. I don’t want to have a discussion though on the gun laws, but in my opinion the laws need to be more rigid.
Thankfully, we don’t really get such crimes in Ghana and I hope that in never does. There are a few wannabe American Gangsters cropping up but nine times out of 10 it is just their mouths that are shooting bullets.

Yesterday, I had a run in with the law myself. I made an illegal u turn on the Tema Motorway. It was not to avoid paying the 50p toll gate fee but because it cuts an hour off my journey time. You see there is a path from my house which leads to the motorway. Unfortunately it embarks onto the opposite side of the motorway. It is great for when I am coming home but not when I am going to work.

If you do the right thing, it means driving straight down to the end of the motorway and joining the roundabout with the drivers going to Accra, so unless you leave before 6am, it is a 45 – 60 minute journey. So I saw that drivers where taking this turn and I took it too. A journey that would normally take 2 hours only took me an hour door-to-door.

Nonetheless, yesterday my luck finally ran out. Just as I turned, there was a police vehicle with 4 police men who stopped the truck in front of me. So I drove by like I hadn’t seen them and sped down the road, it was all going well until some dumbass driver decided he was going to overtake an oil tanker, but his car obviously had seen better days and I am not sure it could even do more than 50KPM, so I was stuck. Then there I saw the flashing lights behind me. The gig was up, I was busted.
I parked on the hard shoulder when a young man storms up to my car waving his hand and shouting at me to park properly. Thankfully an officer with a bit more manners came up to my car and spoke more calmly. Now one thing that annoys me, is that with the Ghana police, especially the young ones, they are a bit over zealous and believe that the uniform means they demand respect. Yes, I respect the uniform, but don’t treat me like an armed robber for a piddly minor offence. Which is what I explained very calmly to the nicer officer, I was like, I know I have done wrong, you have stopped me and I have parked, there is no need for such a tone. Is it really necessary? He then asked me if I knew why I was stopped. I pleaded ignorant at that point and looked up with an innocent face. They say that ignorance is no excuse to break the law, but a girl has to play her best card.

He then asked me why I was evading paying the governments revenue. So I was like no, I was trying to avoid traffic, the traffic at the roundabout puts an hour on my journey and I had seen others use that path so thought I would too. At that point another car got stopped, he had a kid in the car and said it was an emergency as the child was sick. Likely story, but I was driving alone or else I would have probably pulled that one.
So officer nice then gives me a lecture about it being dangerous to take a U-turn where I did and I should value my life. I listened, nodded and agreed. Then the young aggressive officer shouts out “are you going to arrest her” but officer nice shouts back that I didn’t know, so he will let me off with a slap on the wrist.
So I thanked him for his time, and gave him a small contribution. “Is this a gift or a bribe he asks, because me I am doing my job and enforcing the law”. I tell him he had already let me off so it was just something for breakfast. He didn’t refuse the money though. Funny that.
At that point, another illegal u-turn was made, young aggressive officer runs out into the road to flag him down but the driver sped off.
Officer nice says “he thinks he has got away with it, but I like that, he has nowhere to run, I will catch up with him very soon”, then he gets in his car and speeds off after the fugitive.

Moral of the story, crime doesn’t pay, however, if you do commit a minor offence here, it probably can do.