Traffic Police and the Woes of Drivers: Corruption and Insecurity
I woke up to 14 miss calls from a driver who was supposed to deliver a cartoon of medicines to us from Freetown (to Makeni). I had actually waited for his calls since yesterday night, but he didn't reach out (at least not until I went to bed). It happened that he was detained at Mile 38 checkpoint by some police officers asking him to offload the cartoon of drugs claiming he could be transporting counterfeit even as they were given the receipts and go-ahead to opena the cartoons to search. He told me they asked everyone out of his car including him for a thorough search just because he was not corporative. By now you would have guessed what to corporate means in Sierra Leone: to bribe your way out of trouble.
He slept there until this morning.
After several calls, he told me that they were about to move his case to Waterloo police Station, threatening it could be at his detriment. He told me he's asked that they compromise the issue for the Sum of Le200,000, which practice I told him I will not adhere to and that he should let them take my goods to the police, I will report there with my business license and documents.
I hurriedly dialed 515 (Anti Corruption Free Line) to report the matter. To my surprise, after several calls and engagement with the machine, no one answered the call, and this caused dismay. It is Sunday, and their office could be close. So I hurried to the park to report to the center after several (disturbing) calls from the worried driver. I was fortunate to catch up with an early ride.

#_The_Worse_was_to_Happen
(Woes of the Drivers)
It's amazing to learn how corruption between the police and drivers has mutated to becoming an indestructible beast. I noticed how at every point where traffic police officers were the apprentice could take an undisclosed amount from the driver to place in a tray pretending to buy something but coming back with nothing. There are up to five points for such illicit offer. You would have to be a kin observer to notice what was going on. What a conning way to vindicate oneself from corruption allegations!
But at one point, the driver had to spill the beans on the floor when a police officer asked him  to alight and have a short private discuss with him after he had insistently told him that he had "booked" them in the early morning to Makeni. The driver was annoyed and pulled out. I hear the police officer saying if he moved he will be in trouble, by this time the disdainful driver had moved on retorting he awaits that problem. His move amazed me, and I asked him if he has license. He told me he has everything, but despite that, they are required to pay "booking" at every point at least once everyday to avoid embarrassment from the police who wouldn't care if you have document when they want their token. I asked if it was legit, or really required of them to pay the sum (which his apprentice alleged is Le10,000 at every point), he negated it saying it was just to avoid their troubles. By now I recalled what someone once told me about the police that 'a police is like a rock, and a civilian is like an egg, the egg will suffer in all ways if it dances with the rock.

New vocabulary: Booking