IGP Deserves No Apology

Fellow countrymen, it is imperative we ignore the harsh tone of the honorable Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong and concentrate on the merits of the issues he raised. After a careful evaluation of the MP’s statements against the IGP, Mr. John Kudalor, every sentient creature who loathes crime will conclude that Mr. Agyapong did diddly wrong to warrant condemnation.

The president of the Republic of Ghana, Mr. John Dramani Mahama and his cabinet members such as the minister of interior are enjoying their positions without fear because Ghana is stable and peaceful. I don’t think Mr. Mahama and his cabinet members could sleep well if they were rulers of Somalia. Certainly, they are enjoying their powers because of Albert Venn (A. V) Dicey’s (1835-1922) minted theory known as “rule of law”.

A. V Dicey provided three main explanations to the concept of rule of law. These were liberty, supremacy/certainty of the law and equality before the law. By liberty, Dicey meant the law must be the result but not the source of individual’s behavior. Apparently, the law must guarantee certain freedoms such as association, religion and press as well as protecting basic fundamental human rights such as right to life and right to own a property. The supremacy of the law is necessary to safeguard the citizens from arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, panyarring (torture), intimidations, death threat and killings. By equality before the law, Dicey asserted that all individuals must be treated equally in accordance with the law. The framers of the 1992 constitution of Ghana adopted rule of law.

Rule of law remained integral part of Ghana’s constitutional discourse. In spite of the most touted rule of law, the brother of Al-Hajj Collins Dauda, the Minister of local government and rural development under Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Naaba Abdulai reportedly said: “we kill people every day” (Source: peacefmonline.com, November 11, 2016). The IGP, BNI, and the national security see nothing wrong with the aforesaid ignoble statement by Naaba Abdulai. Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah was recently invited by Ghana police for publicly claiming that he received some prophesies about evil people plotting to kill the main opposition leader, Nana Addo Danquah Akufu Addo. Why has the police refused to invite Naaba Abdulai? Are we saying Mr. Agyapong must commend IGP for selective justice? Apologizing to IGP for what? For heaven sake! Mr. Kudalor is IGP because of the law and the law must be enforced to the letter.

The tone and modus operandi of the Assin central legislator were harsh, even so, the American moral psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg asserted that reasons to dilemma make moral maturity but not the response. This means that the reasons Mr Agyapong was harsh on the police chief must be raised above the public response to his modus operandi. Murder must not be entertained in Ghana. During the Montie 3 brouhaha, the security agencies, the BNI, the police and the national security saw nothing wrong with the guy’s sordid journalistic faux pas. The BNI even came to white-wash them. When the impartial Supreme Court found the montie 3 culpable of the law, Mr. Mahama was pressurized by members of his party to release them, which he eventually succumbed to by reducing the sentences of the three contemnors.

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be saved” (Fredrick Douglass). Ghanaians must work hard to eschew the rising selective justice, political Jacobinism, chicanery, brinkmanship and panjandrum in our dear country. Why must the national peace council, religious leaders, traditional leaders and other well-meaning Ghanaians keep quiet while the security agencies pursue selective justice? Is that the meaning of rule of law?

Serial murder is becoming a pattern in Ghana now. For instance, in December, 2013, a staff of Stanbic Bank, a strikingly beautiful Rosemond Nyampong was murdered in a cold blood. In March 2014, Fennec Okyere was murdered by unknown assailants. On May 23, 2015, Mr. Adams Mahama, the Upper East regional chairman of NPP was murdered. On February 9, 2016, the member of parliament of Abuakwa North constituency, Mr J.B Danquah Adu was murdered. On June 28, 2007, Mr. Rokko Frimpong, the deputy managing director of the Ghana Commercial Bank was murdered by unknown assailants. Any serious country will drag our security chiefs (IGP, BNI,) to parliament to furnish the national assembly on the stages of the above murder cases.

We must dismantle the main scaffolding of Ghanaian society: hypocrisy and assist patriotic citizens like Mr. Agyapong to uphold the sacrosanctity of our laws. Ghana is on the verge of national suicide now and we must wake from our slumber before it is too late. People are dousing their fellow human beings with the deadly acid, parliament is not bothered, people issue death threat with impunity every now and then, an individual confessed of murdering people every day (Naaba Abdulai), albeit many serial murder pending cases and yet such person is not invited by the police for interrogation. Honorable Kennedy Agyapong must rather be commended. The IGP must resign for police officers who can do the job without fear or favor. IGP, deserves no apology.

When President Rawlings government persecuted the ritual murderer and the chief of Abesim near Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana, in the early 1990s, ritual murder, which was hitherto rising at the then time, fizzled into a thin air. Let us catch just two murderers be it arm robbers or serial killers or acid douser and present them to the soldiers for their shooting training, this evil in our country would be nipped in the bud. IGP deserves no apology as he has failed to arrest Mr. Collins Dauda’s brother. Individuals who kill, sponsor people to kill, threaten to kill, or drenched their fellow human beings with acid must be given a dose of their own pills. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr asserted that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” The police must avoid discriminatory tactics in the enforcement of the law. God bless our homeland Ghana and help us to resist oppressors rule. “I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing.” (Socrates)

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Nana Yaw Osei (Padigo), USA