Control The Fire

The Commonwealth human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has expressed interest in following up on the story of an 18-year-old boy shot dead recently around the Accra Girls Senior high School by a police patrol team.

We find the interest swift and appropriate, considering the pertinent questions the lethal action has triggered.

We had no doubt in our minds that someone's conscience would be pricked by what befell the boy. We were elated when a call came through from the CHRI. Indeed we do not have the full details of what led to the policeman pulling the trigger, having only heard from the deceased's father.

Suffice it to point out that some gaps, in what the father learnt from the Kotobabi

Police Station when he spotted the motorbike on which his son was riding at the time of his death, need filling.

We are happy that the matter has been laid before the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards unit (PIPS). It is our expectation that at the end of the day when the investigations are done, the full report would be laid before the public.

Hakeem was on a motorbike with his friend when the incident occurred. According to the father, his son was shot at point blank range, even after he obeyed the order by the cop to lie down. Nobody would feign ignorance about the criminal activities of some young motorbike riders in Accra in recent times. In fact these days they have mastered the art of snatching, especially ladies' handbags, when riding these flimsy and rickety motorbikes in the streets of Accra.

We acknowledge the dangers faced by policemen on duty, especially under darkness.

Some of them have even lost their lives in the line of duty.

In the same vein, we would not vouch for some of our young policemen, many of whom are unable to control their tempers when on duty or when armed. Sometimes they engage in unnecessary banter, during which, they forget the basic drills to follow before even thinking of pulling the trigger.

The father's insistence that his son was shot when he was lying on the ground, requires further probing to establish the truth.

Why did the police at the Kotobabi Police Station tell the deceased's father that one of the riders fled, and that the pillion rider was in the cells, when the truth was that the boy had been shot dead?

Why did the patrol team leave the boy on the ground after shooting him?

Was it true that the boys had snatched a bag?
What really triggered the firing, and where is the lady whose bag was snatched?

What are the records of the boys? What is their occupation and where were they heading for?

Even if the boys snatched a lady's bag but did not pose a danger to the policemen, should one of them have been shot close to the head?