“My renewed licence was seized by another police officer so I was using an old one. I knew I had erred so when the officer took the expired licence, I quickly took out Ghc 5 and filed it in an AMA operational card and handed it to him,” he told crimecheckghana.org.
Interestingly, the MTTD officer returned the money and the expired license to Ayensu, but that didn’t end his troubles.
When he was about to drive off after the meagre bribe was rejected, other colleagues of the patriotic officer instructed Ayensu to stop, but he ignored them, thinking that his earlier attempt to bribe the first officer was enough to let him off the hook.
“The other officer chased me with a motorbike but I refused to stop even when some pedestrians prompted me. I crossed the yellow light at a point where the officer caught up with me,” he recounted.
The officers dragged him to their station where he was charged with careless and inconsiderate driving and then arraigned before a court. He pleaded guilty to the charges proffered against him.
“I was fined One Thousand Eight Hundred Ghana cedis but I could not pay. I was jailed for two years at the Ankaful Main Prison.”
Fortunately for him, during one of the visits to the prisons by Crime Check Foundation, Ayensu had an opportunity to tell his story.
The foundation later sought funding for his eventual release through its Petty Offenders project.