Is There A Fault In Ghana Police Service, Hon. IGP?

Just recently, Ghana attained a remarkable feat at 61^st years of Independence with all ionic features of celebrations, one of the best questions that we should be discussing is that ‘’are we free as a nation?’’ or are Ghanaians safe, in a simple term? I asked this question because there a lot of happenings in the country and even after the attainment of 61. We all know very well that police though not all perfect, there delivering on their mandate but it is not enough. After 61, how far have we come as an institution charged to protect the people to whom it was first created?

As a student of political science, I understood very well that, being independent does not mean or connotes that we are free and we are going to get everything on a silver platter. No. However, being safe and protected from harm or torture or fear, is undebatable. We don’t need to compete for safety when we have police service unless it is necessary for self-defense. It is the sole and first priority of every government to make sure that the citizens and the foreigners in the country are protected from harm.

This could mean that when government through the police failed to ensure that the country is safe, people are served with necessary protections and assured of confidence of freedom from torture, malice, or threat, then we can conclude that there is a fault in the system, the police service. Why? This is because the Ghana Police Service as an institution is charged to deliver on its mandate. That is to protect and preserve internal security of the country through law enforcement. So when these armed robberies are increasing we can say there’s a breakdown of institution that needs attention.

Security issues in the country is getting worse even after 61. It’s serious. It is like a day by day something of a sort, and if care or measures are not put in place early we will soon enter a state of nature. Armed robberies in Ghana are becoming too much that, it will come to a point where we will soon have these unpatriotic people all over the country so to speak. No joke at all.

Is there a fault in the Ghana police service? I’m tempted to say that armed robbers may have done a research into this and their taking advantage of the fault? You read newspapers today and you wonder how easy the whole act was to the armed robbers. Please IGP, I’m begging you to restructure the system to crack the whip out of these people. Our lives depend on you. Ghanaians today are living in a continuous fear, trembling and above all lost trust in the police. I am still putting this message across based on my own intelligence and as a citizen of this country. Just my admired special prosecutor, Mr. Amidu, for short, said it, I am also acting on my intelligence and as a citizen who is free to say his opinion on this important national matter of concern. The fact that we can’t sleep and dream comfortably in our homes needed an urgent attention.

For Christ sake, who are we then without a wall of policing around us? Who are we? The country is already hard and all of a sudden some just ‘’hijacked’’ you with a gun and take away all your savings and belongings in just a second. What is going on in this country of ours. Is this we called peaceful? And we seeing these stuffs going all day long? Well there is no war in the Fourth Republic, but we are now facing a war of economic hardships and insecurity -armed robbery. At times I just think that we can sue the IGP in court for playing with our lives. Yes, that could be in the right direction for sure. Maybe later we shall advice ourselves accordingly.

Is there a fault in the system making it easier for some people to take advantage of the weak who’s equally endowed with an inalienable right to life, Mr. IGP? Please is there a fault in the police service? Is your institution doing enough to respond to the pressure of armed robberies all over the place? What are the effective measures, Hon. IGP, and your team putting up to ensure citizen’s safety and protection of property? We need actions and assurances from you on our safety. That is the first thing government was established—safety and protection of property. Without this no government has ever existed in the first place.

Let us look at the police patrol system. What kind of system are we using to ensure that our policemen and women act effectively and they, themselves are safe on a discharge of patrol? Interestingly Police Patrols in the country are really funny sometimes. I see most of them are doing great, a tremendous job to secure our streets. Notwithstanding, some few police patrols I saw in parts of the Accra, they seemed to me like Schwarzenegger. It appears as if chasing armed or well wielded robbers is a one-man show on the side of police. Please I hope you know very well that chasing armed robbers is a serious business. When you patrol it means you’re looking for them or to control street users. That is, it. Is a battle between life and death or endurance and giving up? It is unwise for one police man to patrol alone especially in this worst climate we live in. This should be a notice to the Hon. IGP to look at the police patrol system and the distribution pattern of the police personnel that will relate well with the civilian ratios ( Police need 28,000 more personnel to meet UN benchmark | General ...

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/.../Police-need-28-000-more-personnel-...

Nov 4, 2017 - The Ghana Police Service (GPS) has a shortfall of about 28,000 personnel, leaving the nation still short of the required ratio of one police officer to a number of civilians. The United Nations (UN) benchmark is one police officer to 500 people)

Do we need to stop illegality by committing illegality? I don’t think so. I read from the myjoyonline.com that the operation vanguard should ‘’shoot and kill’’ galamseyers or small scale miners who are encroaching on our lands and forests for mineral resources. ( I prefer shoot-to-kill policy in galamsey fight- Deputy Speaker ...

https://www.myjoyonline.com/.../i-prefer-shoot-to-kill-policy-in-galamsey-fight-deput ..)

I hope Hon. did not still depend on this policy since he stated in his speech that dialogue will be the way forward. Actually illegal miners’ activities are not right and must be condemned by all of us but can’t we have any alternatives, I mean measures better than to kill them? Is there a fault in the system in which we are using to stop this menace from continuing? What we need to do is not about number of guns we can use to stop them. Or number of equipment we can burn every day to stop the acts. We need intelligence on the ground, not too many weapons. Intelligence in operation vanguard’s capacity to control the situations. This relates to how we can act on credible information, block sources of operations of these miners, how these heavy equipment are passing from and into our forests, how do we handled seized equipment, auction them? Or give them back to the owners and sanction them for money or imprisonment. Then here too police and soldiers’ distribution matters. Being in group whiles marching these people boot by boot is important to ensure safety of both the officers and the small scale miners. It is not an easy job that is why it requires a whole lot of thinking. I hope to be part of the intelligent unit of the army someday to FastTrack some necessary policies I also think can help our nation but it is good an article like this can send a strong awareness of unseen.

I want to conclude by saying that our safety is in the hands of the police. We as civilians have the right to demand from them our safety and protection of our property. Police was to serve and save lives. Let us relook at the Ghana Police Service and check well if there are some inefficiencies and breakdown of normative institutions and intelligence in discharging the duties we so wished for. If yes, there some faults, please Mr. IGP and his team should do honorable things to put measures in place to ensure the safety of Ghanaians.

This is article is written based on intelligence I gathered. It should not call for any alarms or anything of any sort rather than a piece of information to the GPS.

Written by
Klu Amos. BA. Political Science, KNUST.