MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF THE GHANA POLIC (PART 1)

The Ghana Police Service is one particular security outfit that needs very good commendation but because some of their top brass have been embroiled with partisan politics they would not win public confidence. Also, a section of the top hierarchy and some large numbers of the NCOs have enviously won the covetous 1st Class Honours in Bribery & Corruption from the Havard University with none securing the 2nd Class Upper; and this reputation cannot be wished away and competed with anybody in the civil and public services of Ghana. The human institution called Ghana Police Service is rather an abomination to many. The police who are supposed to play neutrality in their daily activities and professional career have, lately, taken sides contrary to expectations and their positive neutrality stance to support and sing praises of the government of the day for fear of being dismissed or transferred to 'Siberia' i.e. to be relocated to some remotest village without any amenities compel them to act unprofessionally. The general apathy and perception of the public is that most of them pay bribes before enlistment; the selection team also does not bother whether qualification and physique are anything to by at all. And since miscreants would want to explore such lucrative avenues such as this and have the field day, they would try to move the heavens to get enlisted into the service to put to practice their hidden agenda under the guise and cover of the uniform. The police undoubtedly know the secret hideouts of the various criminals in society but always play the ostrich. Combating crime wave in the country, protecting life and property, maintaining law and order and above all, instilling/injecting discipline in the society are but a few of the many social responsibilities they perform with excellence but decide to perform blindly; when you venture to report of robbery at a place the usual response from the many stations is: do you have a vehicle to take us there? When you go to complain at the police counter, they often ask whether you could supply them with a pen to write your complaint. Funny indeed! Whatever bad nuts there may be, as a human institution, however, the top echelon has always tried to ensure that the best global acceptable standards are maintained. Inarguably, however, nobody could dispute the fact that the general performance of service personnel has dropped drastically since December 1981. The author can say categorically with authority that the infusion of riff raffs and for that matter thugs and miscreants drawn from the PDCs, WDCs, People Militias etc. into the mainstream has woefully worsened the plight of the service and not until and of course special screening is done to achieve the best for them, they would continue to perform below average locally but excel little above average internationally. Despite the cream of academia littered and scattered in all the departments of the service as district and regional commanders, with a handful also as operations, finance and administration, training depot commanders etc., as far as most of them have their roots and training from the PNDC's era with evil intentions and mindset, you might as well forget about them; nothing good will ever come out of Nazareth.

THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS
Soon after Ghana's Independence, our colonial masters set up the police force for us with Mr. Erasmus Ransford Tei Madjitey as the first Commissioner of the then Ghana Police Force. It was not long when the baton changed hands to Mr. J.W.K. Harlley of the NLC administration with the Nunoos helping from the flanks. Later, the Force now Service, has been headed by either legal luminary or accountant and the command structure has by stretch of imagination, been encouraging but with the emergence of the PNDC and thereafter, the service has rather delighted to stuff the enviable and reputable institution with personalities of questionable characters, recalcitrant criminals, rapists, armed robbers and other indescribable behaviours that are unprintable. This is because the laid down and acceptable norms and recruitment process have never been followed but by-passed and thrown to the dogs in pursuit of personal aggrandizement. Often-times, for fear of governmental reprisals and retributions, the recruiting staff take persons from the back-door as protocol candidates and these are sometimes the very 'empty' vessels that make the most noise and always have been the villains of the peace. Unlike the eras of the Madjiteys and the Harlleys, subsequent heads like the B.A. Yakubus, the F.P. Kyeis, the S.S. Omanes and the Kwakyes did their best to ensure that their administrations had capable persons with unquestionable tags who performed their duties above average to uplift the image of the service to befit their accolade 'Service with Integrity'. Unfortunately, since the PNDC era and thereafter, the service has been grappled and tainted with habitual recruitment of favorites and tribesmen from the powers that be and that has negatively and gravely impacted their professional competence. Quite apart from that too, lack of periodic training has also contributed immensely to their non performance. The mediocre style some of the weapon wielding personnel walk about in the streets with half tattered clothes is clear testimony and that alone shows that they lack the modern day training and handling of weapons. Some of them lack the psychological and tactical ability.

REFRESHER COURSES
As stated above the Ghana Police Service has for many years been privileged to have legal brains to head it. In trying to polish this noble security institution by reinvigorating almost every available department of this profession, it will however be prudent that while in no time the very top brass have many times been lucky to have refresher courses to attend international conferences and seminars abroad and outside the country's borders, at least the young and probably the under-privileged ones in the system should be given the chance to take either official police courses or vocational or professional courses to broaden their knowledge but are denied. The husband of a police woman who pleaded anonymity with this writer stated that since 2007, there had been a nationwide circular to the effect that no recruit should be allowed to write any promotional exams until after 12 years when the lucky ones, and by inference, the vulnerable policewomen who submit themselves to sexual pressures against their moral will and rights mostly get their automatic corporal and sergeant ranks after the sex escapades while the 'Bob-no-rank males' keep marking time until thy kingdom come. It is unfortunate that I should dwell on sexual harassment and abuse but since the police are part and parcel of us and the fact that the administration is not packed with angels from on high, I would not be far from defending them from the immoral norm and sexual practice that have gradually crept into the Ghanaian society to make policewomen very vulnerable to authority – either you decide to reluctantly offer sex for promotion in rank, sex for decent and suitable work station, sex for better or suitable accommodation or sex for car loan facility if any. The irony is that nobody is permitted to write any external or internal police exams by which time it is assumed one's mental faculty is rotten and has to do with marking time and possibly retire with the rank of hopefully an Inspector if one is brilliant. Is it also a truism that apart from graduates and those with tertiary qualifications, N.C.Os have no access to study leave until after 16 years? The writer stands for correction. The Police should come out to deny or confirm whether those brilliant ones wishing to undergo 'distance learning' to gain the General Business Certificate Examinations usually get sanctioned and interdicted whenever they are caught by the 'hawks in the system. If this is true, then it is a serious indictment. Sooner than later, the top hierarchy will leave the scene and do they expect the service to be headed with just the minimum qualifications of SSSC/SHSC? Quite recently, Mr. David Asante Appeatu was gifted with a dignified Interpol appointment. Would he have been so appointed to that important position with the lower qualification as is being propagated by the endorsement of the Ghana Police Administration inimical stance? May be this is the obvious reason why they fancy their 'red' currency notes everyday from drivers more than anything else.

THE PETER NANFURIS
Could it be true that until Peter became the IGP, he was the most fearful BNI boss Ghana has ever had? And could it be true that many people associate him with the humorous qualification that he was the I.G. with the smallest ever official cap? Peter Nanfuri's name will never be obliterated from the national archives of the police as the most wicked and cruel police boss that Ghana once had. How -ever, he may have been the best in terms of discipline and academics but to me, that is not the case. This author recalls vividly an instance when the late Victor Owusu then an inmate in their custody at the BNI headquarters, was to sign company cheques he sent to him. Victor Owusu then a director and signatory to Gemini Airlines company cheques was concealed from being seen by his own employees for fear that, that individual might perform the functions of courier to transmit information from him to outside of the cells to suspected individual parties. Common signatures to cheques that obviously wouldn't need more than five minutes to sign were to be deposited and left at the reception till the next day for collection. Did his administration at that time think the bearer of that cheque book would perform a courier's function or act as a pimp to carry vital information to suspected accomplices and girl friends of the 'Victor Owusu-Capt. Ampofo's alleged coup plotters? Idiocy, isn't it? That was the era when Peter Nanfuri was the 'almighty' name at Ghana's BNI. So when finally Mr. Rawlings promoted him to become the IGP, the mere mention of his name actually sent shivers down the spines of many people. Despite this strange character, it was perhaps during his tenure that Jack Bebli was alleged to have master-minded the highway gold-bar robbery on the Winneba-Accra road.

JACK BEBLI, 'THE TERROR'
Once upon a time there lived one Jack Bebli, who was a member of the Ghana Police Service. This huge and bulky policeman lived at the Flagstaff House police barracks. Due to obvious reasons he was retired as sergeant and presumably paid his end of service entitlements. But in order that he might accomplish the feat of the 'father's will', he was later re-engaged to the service again when Mr. Rawlings second entry onto the political scene instructed that both police and military personnel who had been retired by the Limann Administration could come back if they wished. Little did many people dream that Jack Bebli of all people would return to put on his police uniform again as serving officer. On his return how -ever, taxi drivers who operated at the Lido taxi rank at Nkrumah Circle became his targeted enemies because when he retired, he forced his way to become a taxi driver around the same area for which he was refused and many times resulted in verbal and physical fights. Jack as was often called, was never a military man but could dress as a soldier to intimidate opponents because his kinsman brother 'Chairman Mao Tse Tsung' was the emperor of the day and who, then, born dog to challenge him. Jack was alleged to have been the brain behind the incarceration of many drivers who opposed him to the military custody. The Gondar Barracks at Burma Camp was the fearful place his opponents were mauled and sent to cool off on his orders. Jack, then singing the master's (Rawlings) voice, became another terror and he ensured that he terrorized his driver opponents with general support of self imposed crazy W.O. Salifu Amankwa who was then the 'beautification' expert at the Nkrumah Circle. The man Salifu Amankwa had such powers at his command post that shaving off one's hair (i.e. the hair of any stray pedestrian who entered into his territory) with broken bottles was the kindest humane gesture one could expect from him. It was no wonder that news spread like wildfire that Jack had been involved in the highway gold robbery. Even though as you read this piece today, Jack is dead and gone after being legally jailed at the Nsawam Medium Prisons for some time for his direct involvement in the gold robbery, those who suffered at his hands would not forgive his ghost for the legacy he bequeathed – ruelty for being the leader of the alleged hit-squad that killed the 200 or so suspected pickpockets, robbers and enemies of the so-called revolution who disappeared during the PNDC era at the Achimota Forest and the John Teye firing range as expatiated by Comrade Bro. Kwesi Pratt Jnr. in his Insight Newspaper years gone by.

Kofi Appiah [email protected] To be continued.