What A Bedlam!

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There was an appetite for blood in some policemen who were given the assignment of shuffling Hon Kennedy Ohene Agyapong from one security joint to the other and from one court to the other in the heady days of the attempts to guillotine the honourable gentleman.

Their body language was entirely incommensurate with the standards of police practice. Hearing the remarks of some of them, especially the threat to kill, sent disappointment because until then they never thought policemen could utter such remarks while undertaking such a major operation like the one which took place last week.

The name of a certain Chief Superintendent Hamza Na Yakubu, Commander of the Armoured Car Squadron, one of the officers who have not been able, so far, to camouflage successfully their National Democratic Congress (NDC) colours, remained on the lips of many who beheld the unfolding drama about Kennedy Agyapong.

As a former cadre, we have reliably learnt, and someone on the verge of retiring, he was ready to pull the trigger to endear himself to those responsible for approving or otherwise his request for a contract.

Contract engagement in the Ghana Police Service has become such a hotcake that many on the verge of leaving are ready to do anything to be considered for the two-year additional association with the organization.

'Remove your car from here. We are not going to pamper you people any longer. We would spray you,' were some of the utterances from the mouth of this man who simply got carried away by the anti-riot gear he was donning and the prospects of getting a two-year contract from the Police Council.

When Mr. Titus Glover narrated his verbal ordeal at the hands of the overzealous officer, a narrative which was corroborated by other respectable persons, many were held spellbound.

Our reporter, Charles Takyi-Boadu, was nearly assaulted by some of the overzealous cops at the CID headquarters as he performed his legitimate duties. The heated verbal exchange between him and the charged young policemen could have resulted in one of them pulling the trigger. Thank God that did not happen.

Others were not that lucky as pepper spray was lavishly directly pumped into their eyes. Some of them had gone to the CID headquarters because as party persons, they had significant roles to play in the unfolding political drama.

It was pathetic observing policemen falling over each other in their bid to be seen to be descending on members of the NPP. How sad in a multiparty democracy.

Not all of them were as reckless and diabolic as Chief Superintendent Yakubu who should have discovered that better Yakubus, such as the late Commissioner of Police B.A. Yakubu, have played their significant part towards the development of the police and gone. He too would go one day whether he gets a contract or not.

The call for the police to be professional has never reverberated with such resonance across the country. Their management of the Kennedy Agyapong matter and their obvious indifference to the rampaging Nii Lante Vanderpuye exposed the dangerous shortcomings in the Service.

It would take more than the intervention of Paul Quaye to change the now appalling image of the Police. When policemen make the kind of utterances associated with Na Yakubu, we can only bow our heads in shame and shudder at the prospects of having such bloody-minded persons police the forthcoming polls. Once more, God save Ghana.