MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF THE GHANA POLICE (PART 2)

Readers will recall that until the advent of both the AFRC and PNDC eras, the country's administration was never like as is what pertains lately. Please read on from the last edition of the article captioned “Microscopic view of the Ghana Police.

THE TWO DECADES THAT BROUGHT POLITICAL DECAY

The second coming of Mr. Rawlings to the Ghanaian political landscape that was unnecessary and unjustifiable by all international standards, rather brought indiscipline onto the country's political terrain. His continued stay onto power from December 31, 1981 through to January 6th 2001, eleven of which was under military dictatorship and the rest as military-turn-coat-civilian politician, actually planted, nurtured and harvested the crop of indiscipline in the Ghanaian body politic. Mr. Rawlings' 19 years rule, a total of 7,060 days including the stint with the A.F.R.C. as 'Chairman Mao Tse Tsung' could have benefitted her in many diverse ways but his initial nervous, intrepid ineptitude that his cohorts took advantage of, wasted an extraordinary opportunity she could have gained as a nation. After his assumption of power, he introduced some socialist alien reforms including the people's militia, the PDCs, WDCs, people's tribunal, Citizen's Vetting Committees, etc. to prove that all of us were the same but just to throw dust into our eyes to amass wealth at the expense of the masses. Your guess could be as good as mine; people of all kinds, riff raffs, miscreants and misfits who could not make ends meet in all spheres of life quickly jumped onto the bandwagon to become filthily rich and contrary to the tenets of socialism - that no one should be rich at the expense of the other. Law and order broke down; rather, it was thrown to the dogs; there was no total and complete command structure in either the police or the military; the messenger in a private company rose against his chief executive, the police corporal rose against his chief superintendent, the lance corporal in the army had much say than his colonel; that was the era when all commercial banks were instructed to submit the list of all clients who had much more than Gh₵5.00 or ₵50,000.00 in their bank accounts – they were to show cause or reason as to how they came by that huge amount in their accounts; not only that; nobody was permitted by their 'kangaroo' laws or decrees to withdraw more than Gh₵2.00 or ₵20,000.00 weekly – silly isn't it? Today, how much more of the Gh₵5.00 in multiples of that figure does Prof. (then Mr.) Kwamena Ahwoi not have in his bank accounts? Do the proponents of such brutish decrees not have more than one water closets (w.cs) in their homes whilst the people of Nima still struggle to queue to ease themselves? The court bailiff then wielded more powers than the judge etc. That was Rawlings Ghana and history tuition for present day history students. Funnily, many of his associate friends including an old Greek friend of his, the late Len Eliopolous, who know him relate that he is not after all a brave person; but does the job of a hunch-backed person who has been tasked with taking care of women, children and the aged at home when the real bold and active men have left town for their farms or workplaces. What normally fascinates him was to stir the muddy waters all the time.

APOLOGY TO THE NOBLE PROFESSION OR DISGRACE
The mystery surrounding the sudden death of former Vice President, Mr. Kow Nkensen Arkaah, when the vehicle on which he was returning home had a head-on collision with a hit-and-run-assassin's vehicle when he was only a few metres away from the gates of his residence at East Cantonments in Accra continues to be an unresolved riddle. Police General Constable Owusu Sekyere and others were murdered and buried under water by the local people of Ablekuma in Accra but the police swiftly swung into action to investigate to discover the burial ground and eventually the culprits brought to book. If the action pricks their membership, then their self-interest reigns supreme but deny others who have no links with the profession. Messrs. Appenteng, Rokkko Frimpong, Deputy M.D., GCB, the former 1st vice chairman of NPP for the Dome Kwabenya constituency; the 32 or so women who were serially murdered prior to the 2000 elections etc. may have had their dockets vanished through thin air or burnt to ashes. Apart from Quansah who was used as a scapegoat, all the others are regarded as 'foolish cases'. Again, the mysterious circumstances involving the death of a poor driver and his mate whose tro-tro vehicle crossed with the ex-president Rawlings's on the Tema Motorway still hangs in the balance and rings a bell and not until the police sits down to open this docket, their ghosts will continue to haunt the administration in perpetuity. Why, why? Were they not human beings and also Ghanaians who deserve justice, even posthumously? And are the culprits (Ashaiman police who may have beaten them to death or poisoned them to lose their lives miraculously) above any of the laws of the land? Hmm, judgment day awaits them. Madam DCOP Rose Atenga Bio and the Agbobloshie daylight hatchet of political opponents, does this ring a bell? Anita de Souza's madness at Atiwa in the full glare of the Ghana Police; the Akwatia by-election for 6 polling stations where the Ghana Police kindly asked Hon. Dan Botwe to flee in his own interest to avoid being hacked down by the Jihad revolutionaries; the continued incarcera -tion of NPP activists in police custody has turned out to be a nightmare. Will the Kwesi Oforis and the Cephas Arthurs be able to make the international grades in professional policing and ethics when they intentionally deceive the general public with perpetual lies and orchestrated gimmicks; their avowed support of the barbaric bestial behavior of Service personnel and inaction of the Police Administration clearly amplifies the mistrust in them. Even though previous predecessors such as the Peter Nanfuris, the Osei Pokus, the

Nana Owusu Nsiahs and the Patrick Acheampongs have come and gone, trust me, their eras will pass the litmus test much better than the Paul Tawiah Quaye's tenure that will forever remain as the most brutish police administration Ghana has ever had in the last 50 years because of the glaring disregard for human dignity and the apparent complicity.

COCAINE TURNED TO 'KOKONTE' AND CAUSTIC SODA

This writer cannot say that he is a Togolese but always feels ashamed for being a Ghanaian. How come that some confiscated powdery substance suspected to be cocaine after laboratory tests and checks, confirm its authenticity and later turn out to be either 'kokonte' or caustic soda? It is only the Ghana Police who will boldly superintend such scandalous crime and come out to tell the whole world this funny Ananse tale. Did anybody hear that shameful and pretentious police -man trying to absolve the police from the scandalous act on air and shifting blame and goalposts to the corridors and doorsteps of the Judiciary? Shameful behavior, isn't it? Has the author's theorem now been proved right in his earlier submission that the whole system is fraught with some miscreants and misfits that is why dangerous drugs such as this should become the talk of town and the mystery of the millennium. The whole Administration should bow their heads in big shame for this international scandal. According to a world renowned international criminal expert and researcher, Dr. Stanton Samenow, “Criminals cause crime not because of bad neighborhoods and/or inadequate parents”. But in Ghana in particular, the crime wave is rather being perpetrated by the youth and a couple of dozens of them being the police caught red-handed culprits and others too hiring out weapons and firearms to criminals. By the disclosures of these bizarre circumstances, I am tempted to suggest that such drugs should in future be sent to the security vaults of the Bank of Ghana for keeps and relieve them of this additional responsibility. The place should be secured and reinforced with three or more security padlocks and distributed amongst the Police, the NACOB, the Judiciary and the Ghana Standards Authority, and the substance in custody only presented as exhibit in the law courts to shame the police because if they only continue to be custodians, by jove, we haven't seen anything yet. Since they have fallen short of their cardinal principle as custodian of such objects, I would like to suggest that those responsible for the custody of such drugs in the last 10 years be dismissed and terminated in shame without any service entitlement and their assets and liabilities confiscated as well as their names blacklisted altogether to serve as deterrent.

THE POLICE AND ELECTION YEAR

Several election disputes the world over have brought woes and untold hardships to many countries especially in Africa. Ghana's political landscape nearly turned to a bloodbath but for God's intervention and political maturity. The elections could be brought forward about a month i.e. in November to contain the time frame for the Transition Committee to have sufficient time to cater for the change over and handing over notes. But the partisan stance exhibited by the police in the three by-elections at Cherepone, Akwatia and Atiwa where human blood flowed as a result of lawlessness by the incumbent NDC are testamentary evidence and circumstantial proof that the Ghana Police cannot behave as neutral party in this crucial election dubbed by the NPP as 'all-die-be –die' and do-and-die by their NDC archrivals. Despite the abysmal performance of government that requires automatic change, they would make sure they moved all the heavens to ensure that victory does not elude them. So in a situation like this, if the political temperature rises as is bound to be; what neutrality role do you expect the Ghana Police who are the employees of the government of the day to play on the D-day? The answer is as crystal clear as the ice. They will sing their master's choruses no matter what. But is it necessary for reinforcement from international observers to police the polls? Certainly no! As the seconds tick by and the minutes grow into hours, days, weeks and months, certainly, the election date will come and the earlier the police functioned as a neutral professional corporate entity, the better. The world is watching with telescopic binoculars whilst God is also watching with divine eye. Since we pride ourselves as probably the only God-fearing nation in the world and peace loving, all the world political lenses will be focused on Ghana and the Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan is someone who has my utmost sympathy.

PUBLIC PERCEPTION ABOUT THE POLICE
Not until the likes of DCOP Rose Atenga Bio and Cephas Arthur especially who is gradually carving a niche for himself as equally substantive replacement for Kwesi Ofori before he graduates from the Academy of “Lies Public Deception” to deny the entire Police Administration of international recognition for UN appointments and respect for professionalism in policing, the public have no confidence in the Ghana Police. And if this persists, the author will be compelled to seek and/solicit the permission from the high office of Her Majesty the Queen of England, Her Excellency Elizabeth Regina II to consider and arrange for the inclusion of the names of police personalities such as DCOP Rose Atenga Bio, DSP Kwesi Ofori and a few others whose names do not readily click and who persistently show bias and positive defiance of police inaction and blatant disregard for loss of human lives (the brutish slaughter of political opponents at Agbobloshie in Accra, the by-elections at Cherepone where some death was recorded; Akwatia where the Police unprofessionally asked Hon. Dan Botwe to leave the township to save his life and lastly at Atiwa where Anita de Souza boisterously drove her car through jubilant crowd and maimed opponents in the full glare of weapon-wielding police, are but a few that could pass for honorary knighthood while the NCOs whose blood systems are immunized with bribery and corruption would be accorded with local awards of the 'Order of the Volta' (Civil Division) if they also do not halt their shameful daily acts of taking bribes that have been concealed in drivers' licences – and that would go down in history as the worst ever Police Administration we have witnessed in recent times.

NPP'S CLARION CALL FOR BIOMETRIC VERIFICATION

The vehemence with which the NDC Scribe tried to propagate to the world that Ghana's election would come off without verification with their propaganda machinery set in motion to run round the nukes and crannies of the country clearly suggest that imminent defeat stares at them. How come that they went round the villages to spread rumours that anyone who mustered courage to touch the verification gadget during the election would certainly be infested with either cancer or HIV AIDS. For fear of being infested with these dreadful diseases therefore, the unlikelihood that the villagers would reject the new system to the detriment of NPP was not farfetched. Meanwhile we know that the NDC have zoned the country into territories and seriously peddling such falsehood to achieve their diabolical plan. Latest events unfolding from the EC precincts attest to that fact and which buttresses the Akan saying below, that left to them, we should behave like the tortoise as explained below with the proverb. The Akan local parlance, “Se wope akyekyedee asisi no a na woka kyere no se kohohoro wo nsa bra na yen nnidi” literally translated as asking the tortoise to go and wash its hands before coming back to join in a feast. The tortoise, as we all know, walks on all fours; and it would be a surprise to see it with clean and washed hands before partaking in a meal with his host at a luncheon party. The NPP as a human institution has seen and found out the tricksters. If the EC is broke, they should send an SOS message to the international community for financial assistance to avoid the unpleasant sight of unrest and civil disobedience before, during and after the elections.

ADMONITION
To bring the curtain down on the abysmal performance of our police in general, I would end with a quote by Murdo Fraser, one time Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives in Parliament, ……… “That is what we should be focusing on now, but not wasting our time and money on constitutional navel-gazing”. Instead of putting back good economic structures in place to forestall our bold forward march, the government led by Egya Atta, treasures in very trivial things by being the first ever president round the globe as world setter of committees of enquiries to distract our attention on good governance. By Kofi Appiah

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