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16.12.2014 Editorial

A Minister's Ignorance

By Daily Guide
A Minister's Ignorance
16.12.2014 LISTEN

Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo
Yesterday the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Afotey Agbo, or Lion his nom de guerre, presented a detestable impression about himself.

Above all, he delivered an unimpressive testimonial about the Ghana Police Service, a gesture incompatible with the status of a minister whose government should be the last to wash the dirty linen of the law enforcement agency in the public as he gleefully did to cover his shortcomings as regional minister.

He said that the law enforcement agency had shown bias in a chieftaincy impasse in Apolonia near Ashaiman, Accra and by implication could not be trusted to deal with the issue at stake.

When he was called upon to speak to the Apolonia impasse, especially how soldiers were deployed to the place by the District Security Council (DISEC), Lion failed woefully to make a positive mark spending a greater part of the time dangling what he called his pedigree in running regional ministries and his long standing association with former President Jerry John Rawlings as though that was an enviable achievement.

His incessant boastful remarks, steeped in outright arrogance, did not worry those who listened to him as much as his running down the Ghana Police Service, especially the Tema Regional Command.

Some soldiers were reportedly sent to Apolonia over a chieftaincy impasse – a situation which made the headline the following day and attributed to the minister.

After feigning ignorance about what had happened, the regional minister eventually admitted that he was informed about the simmering tension through a correspondence – something he said he treated on 'information only basis' and did not therefore require his intervention.

Resorting to inviting the military to the location he observed, was informed by a non-confidence in the law enforcement agency describing the action as normal all over the world.

Whoever told him governance is about deploying soldiers in matters which do not require such action and claiming this happens all over the world, shows just how narrow-minded the gentleman is.

It is such unnecessary involvement of the military in matters which should be left to the law enforcement agents which undermines the authority of the police.

Recent reports about soldiers taking the law into their own hands across the country is attributable to such actions as witnessed in Apolonia and which Lion sought to defend.

We condemn the ease with which soldiers can be deployed upon the flimsy decision of a DISEC in matters which are strictly police in nature.

The military have no business intervening in such matters and this knowledge is important for those who hold public office such as regional ministers and district chief executives.

The military can only be engaged in Internal Security Operations when the law enforcement agents are unable to deal with an emergent situation.

Indeed, deploying troops for such duties should not be abused as the regional minister sought to present it. If people like Lion can order the movement of soldiers to deal with a chieftaincy dispute because he has lost confidence in the police, then we are in trouble in this country, especially after claiming that he called the attention of the IGP to the challenge.

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