Kumasi ‘Pragia’ operators to demonstrate against the police over alleged extortions

Rickshaw operators in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, have threatened to demonstrate against the police for arbitrary arrest and alleged extortion of money.

The riders of the tricycles, known as ‘Pragia’, alleged that the police in the Ashanti region charge them between GHC100 and GHC500 for any least traffic offence, failure to do so, will be sent to court.

The aggrieved drivers, numbering about 200, converged at the Manhyia Palace roundabout at Asawasi in the Asokore Mampong municipality on Friday, April 22, 2022, to strategize for the demonstration.

Speaking to Otec News, the leader of the operators, Mohammed Alhassan, said they could no longer tolerate the harassment melted to them, a situation they described can end their source of livelihood.

“The extortion of money by the police is too much for us, which we can no longer contain. They have been collecting between GHC100 and GHC500 for the least traffic offense,” he alleged.

He added that if the government will not allow them to operate commercially, it should not have allowed them to register their tricycles in the first place.

“We have about 17,000 pragia in the region, if the police want to end our source of livelihood, do they want us to involve in illegal activities for our survival,” Mohammed quizzed.

He hinted that “we are here to strategize a plan to mount a vigorous campaign against the Ashanti Regional Police Command to stop their illegal acts.”

“We are going to petition the government either to commercialize our activities or we will defend themselves by any means against the harassment of the corrupt police in the region,” he threatened.