A police officer on Monday afternoon escaped a mob attack at the forecourt of The Multimedia Group when he attempted to arrest a driver for a road offence.

Lance Corporal Godfred Adomogre Lawd said he was assigned to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) guards to clear hawkers from the streets. 

He pursued the offending driver, ElegbaTrewu, whom he accused of parking at an unauthorised place under the Kwame Nkrumah Overpass at Circle.

The driver, according to the police, refused to stop when he ordered him to do so.

The lance corporal hopped onto an Okada, an illegal commercial motorbike, and chased the driver with the intent to arrest him.

The driver’s plan to seek refuge at the car park of The Mulitimedia Group failed him as the officer pounced and gave him some slaps for leading him on the hot afternoon chase, an eyewitness told Myjoyonline.com.

But an unidentified military man stopped the police officer from further assaulting the civilian drawing scores of people to the scene. 

Some onlookers became angry with the police for assaulting the driver instead of arresting and charging him for the offence he is said to have committed.

But the timely intervention by the Programmes Director at Joy FM, Kofi Ansah, saw the officer escaping an attack. He was whisked to Multimedia's radio building to contact his superiors for assistance.

The lance corporal, who claimed to be with the Police Visibility Team, had no identity card and service number to show at the time of the incident. His name tag was also not displayed on his uniform as police officers are mandated to wear.

Narrating his side of the story, Elegba Trewu said he was driving when the car suddenly developed a mechanical fault around the Circle Overpass so he decided to park to check.

It was at that point he said he heard “arrest him, arrest him!” Suddenly, he saw the metro guards trying to lock the wheels off the car, so he drove away, he said.

A team of police officers were dispatched from the Accra Region Command to The Multimedia Group to take the officer back to his duty post.