Posers For IGP, Bartels

Even before the dust settles down on the recent Anlo mayhem, the curfew imposed on the location has been lifted in a rather controversial manner, leaving in its wake a situation of “no war, no peace”.

The Attorney General's request for a court order restraining the traditional authorities from outdooring the new chief, has also been granted.

This is against the backdrop of the traditional authorities' position that the installation of the new chief is a fait accompli.

As to whether the installation is lawful or not is not for us to dilate upon but a matter for the relevant traditional authorities and forum.

We hope and pray that the aggrieved parties would resort to lawful means to resolve their outstanding differences.

We however take issue with the brutal, callous and dastardly manner in which the police officer, who was merely performing his duties, was murdered. Besides this, three other persons were murdered in a fashion which can best be described as wicked.

We are aware that certain persons whose names have been associated with the unlawful conduct have been put before court and granted bail.

The Police, we have learnt, are undertaking further investigations into what happened and we do not intend to interfere with this process. Much as we do not doubt the competence of the Police who have a track record in such matters, we do have a few questions to pose.

We want to know how soon the results of the investigations will be released. We pose this question because little appears to have been done so far, and this for peculiar reasons according to information reaching us.

A few weeks ago, we filed a tell-tale story which associated the name of a man with the murder of the policeman.

The story included the name of a personality who could have pressed the trigger on that fateful day but who, for reasons beyond our ken, is walking the streets a free man.

These are serious issues and we expect peace and law enforcement officers to tackle them with the appropriate seriousness they deserve.

Chieftaincy-related lawlessness is fast becoming the order of the day in the country and the sooner the brakes are pulled on them the better.

Good governance is not limited to the absence of arbitrariness or dictatorship in a political environment.

Our country reeled under a pseudo-democratic system for a long time, a situation which has naturally led many to ignore the other important elements of good governance.

Good governance enjoins the government of the day to ensure that the law is applied to the letter when there is a breach, no matter whose ox is gored.

To put it bluntly, the governmental machinery is being tested by certain nasty developments about its ability to apply the law without a kid's glove.

The recent fatal skirmishes in Anlo and the ensuing legal developments evoke a sense of hopelessness in the minds of curious Ghanaians, and we shudder to think that this is happening in a country which seeks to maintain its good governance record.

We are particularly interested in finding out about the results of the autopsy on the bodies of the murdered persons in the Anlo mayhem. We hear the corpses were brought down to Accra for the morbid procedure.

We demand that the right signals are sent to all and sundry that the government can apply the law to the letter.

A good government must be fair, firm and unwavering in enforcing the statutes of state.

We pause for a response from the Interior Minister and the IGP as we prepare for our next line of action especially against the backdrop of a possible repeat of another chieftaincy dispute in the mould of Dagbon, Anlo or elsewhere in the country.