‘I followed a motorcade from Parliament’ – NPP MP explains V8 road traffic indiscipline

MP for Nhyiaeso was arrested for a traffic offence

He pleaded not guilty

Dr. Stephen Amoah, the NPP MP for Nhyiaeso, who has been accused of a road traffic offence, has explained that he simply followed a motorcade that came out from the forecourt of the Parliament House on Tuesday, December 7.

According to him, the police erred stating that he was driving in the middle of the road as per their statement on Facebook and Twitter.

Narrating his ordeal on Joy FM’s ‘Newsnight’ programme, as monitored by GhanaWeb, Dr. Amoah said, “I saw one Land Cruiser being taken out of Parliament House by a motorcade and I followed that one. If that is an offence, I will accept but the things they are saying about all those offences, I don’t know anything about that, God is my witness…whatever they want to say they should go ahead, after that everybody will know the truth.”

When asked if he will challenge his ‘unlawful’ arrest in court, the MP indicated that he does not want to challenge anything.

“I’m not gonna challenge anything; I just want my reputation…If I had offended the court, I don’t have any problem…”

Dr Amoah claims the police have tarnished his image to the whole world “as if I had done something, please let’s be very honest; as an MP, and I wasn’t rude to the police…but I am telling you if what I did was wrong, fine but I never drove carelessly in the middle of the road blocking people; I never did that.”

“I followed one Land Cruiser with a motorcade…,” he stressed.

The Ghana Police Service on Tuesday, December 7, 2021, between 1600 and 1830 hours, mounted an operation around Airport By-Pass to arrest drivers who were not complying with the Road Traffic Regulations.

During the exercise, the Police arrested some drivers including the MP, Dr. Stephen Amoah, who was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser with registration number GT 7059 – 20.

The road traffic offenders were processed for court on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, but the MP refused to honour the invitation.

Later, the Police sought a bench warrant for the arrest of MP for Nhyiaeso for failing to appear before the La Magistrate Court.

The Police noted, the MP had been charged with various road traffic offences.

Later on Thursday, December 9, 2021, the Police issued a statement indicating that the MP had turned himself in and pleaded with the Court to revoke the arrest warrant.

Dr. Amoah told Joy FM that, the whole story resulted from a miscommunication on the part of the Police.

The legislator in the interview said he was not informed about having to appear in court.

“The Prosecutor himself came there and informed the court that it was a miscommunication and they pleaded with the court to either withdraw or quash the bench warrant. I was surprised because Evans, I had never been invited to go to the Court, never.

“In fact, even the charge sheet was given to me today [Thursday] in the presence of my lawyers and they were shocked so all those issues, all those hullaballoo, I really didn’t understand what was going on. I was so shocked, In fact, I’m shocked about everything and all that I can say is that because the issue is in court, I can’t say much,” Dr. Amoah added.