The Bad And Good Cops: The Weija Policemen Hiring Out AK 47 Rifles To Robbers

Growing up in a community in the eastern region of Ghana where much weight is placed on urbane lifestyle and discipline but with fear entrusted in some entities with an imaginary state of a “martyr”, I was made to swallow this idea that the police was one of the horrendous entities on this planet at a very infantile age.

As a child, I could be described as one with frail health such that almost every second I would find myself being transplanted from one health centre to the other.

I quite remember how my lovely Grandmother, one of the venerable people residing on this earth would always send shivers down my spine by mentioning the police anytime she wanted to foist me to take my medications, especially when it comes to taking in those bitter pills, syrups and herbs.

I have always exuded low-key abhorrence and fear for the police as an infant until recent times that I got to know that the Ghana police are expected to be my friend.

It is so enthralling to know how things often turn out to be through the vicissitude of time, such that the young boy who used to distance himself from the police some years ago can now pose for photographs in a swooning mood with some childhood friends, people of same blood ties and the ilk that have joined the Police Service with time.

Hitherto, there are still three things that I do not understand about the Ghana Police Service which includes why they settled on the colour black and not white, blue or indigo uniforms? I do not want to conclude erroneously that the black uniform could be an affirmation of the aphorism of our forefathers that “the condition of the half-naked(“kwatrikwa”) is the surest litmus test of his promise to offer to clothe to another” since that could be an argument for another day.

I also have this question crawling on my mind as to why some Ghanaian people refer to them as “aban”, which literally means the Government, and lastly why is it always the case that the “vertically challenged” like myself are not part of their taste and preference when recruiting, regardless of our passion for the job, not even at this point in time where we have our astute “height mate” as the whole commander in chief of the Ghana Armed Forces? As a member of the ‘Ghana short guys association’, I sometimes feel peeved whenever I see some policemen with pot bellies, who cannot stand us in athletics enjoying at the expense of us in the police service all in the name of height.

The unfolding criminal issues of some Police in Ghana continuous unabatedly as suggested by some news outlets albeit there are some disciplined and passionate policemen as well.

The cardinal rock of this write-up, therefore, is in response to the actions of the few “bad nuts” in the Ghana police service, such as those involved in the recent AK 47 saga at Weija.

This piece would also attempt to tease out how we can help avert such instances from re-occurring in the future to an extent.

First and foremost, to wheel you through this discourse let us take a trip back to memory lane in order to put all of us on the same wavelength.

It is no more astounding to hear the police are meddling in crime and other dire acts in Ghana since these acts did not start today.

In the yore, specifically in 2008, the Police administration dismissed one inspector James Amuzu for embezzlement of gargantuan funds belonging to the Cape Coast Police church.

How can one forget, the heartrending story of the taxi driver, Kwabena Danso whose “derriere” and “valuables” in between his legs were given a “panoramic view” by audience at a filling station having been physically assaulted by Gabriel Tabiri, a policeman with service number 36832 who was of the Anyaa police station for allegedly jumping a red traffic light situated at the Anyaa stretch of the highway? Reports indicate, it was a faux pas on the part of the Police to strip this innocent driver naked (physically assault) since the traffic light in question was faulty.

There is also the report concerning Corporal Effah Kyere Boadu, an upper East Regional police officer who was picked up by the Navrongo Police for supposedly selling three pistols belonging to the police service to robbers who were caught after heavy gunfire exchange with a police patrol team.

I do not intend making you feel intrigued but there is also an instance involving two policemen, General corporal Solomon Elvis Mensah and General Lance Corporal Daniel Kissi Abrokwa who together with other accomplices were fingered in the robbery of a bullion van belonging to GCB bank Limited in Mame Krobo sometime ago.

Again, on the 12^th of December, 2017 General Lance Corporal Raymond Amegashie who was of the Tema Police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit was allegedly arrested together with other partners in crime (civilians) for robbing a super market at Nungua.

The Corporal Raymond Amegashie, dressed in his uniform had booked for AK 47 with 20 rounds of ammunition for official guard duties at Glotec Ghana Limited and purportedly ended up using the gun for robbery instead.

It is therefore not bizarre on my part to hear that just last week on the 24th of April, 2018 reports of three police men namely Sergeant Stanley Mensah, Corporal Emmanuel Takyi of Weija Police Station and Corporal Simon Osei of the Rapid Deployment force (RDF) surfaced in the news for their involvement in selling AK 47 riffle to armed robbers.

In the criminology lexicon , such crimes in the form of business with leaders at the top (police) and some people working below these leaders(the civilian robbers) who are assigned with dead lines, rewards amongst others with their acts clandestinely done is called enterprise crime, syndicate crime or in some books they call it organized crime.

To fill your warmth yawning gap in making meanings out of this write-up, kindly permit me to stray a bit and look at a brief history of the Ghana police service and some roles of the Ghanaian cop.

The police may be refered to as a body of officers representing the civil authority of Government. The police or cop is a servant of the state performing sovereign roles and liable to certain responsibilities to an extent.

There are diverse narrations as to when formal policing started in Ghana and till date scholars are yet to accord on this.

One narration has it that policing in Ghana (then Gold Coast) was originally organized by traditional authorities led by local chiefs before the inception of the colonial regime.

Thus, before the colonial masters arrived on our land our Chiefs who were the custodian of the land had what we call as “ahenfie police” in place who carried out some aspect of police duties in the various traditional areas per this narration.

One narration also traces the history to 1831 and explains that professional policing started in the Gold Coast when Captain George MacLean formed a body of one hundred and twenty-nine men known as the Gold Coast Corps and later as the Royal Corps to maintain and enforce the provisions of the “treaty of peace” which he signed with the coastal Chiefs and the King of Ashanti.

The narration shows men recruited in 1831 were trained and deployed to perform civil police duties until their activities were disbanded in 1860 and replaced by West Indian regiment. In 1871, when the British took full control of the entire Gold Coast they started what later became known as the Gold Coast Police Force with 700 Hausa men from the Northern Nigeria and West Indies.

Some writers also indicated that official policing was formalised in 1873 when an ordinance to provide for the better regulations and discipline of the armed police force was enacted. Others also trace the formation to the Bond of 1844 drawn up between the Fante chiefs and MacLean prior to the Battle of “Nsamankow”.

In brief, I do not have an extensive historical lens since I am not a historian but I believe that whichever way we want to look at the history we should note that some sort of force existed during the pre-colonial era and some professional force also existed in the colonial era.

It has, however, been chronicled by most writers that George Maclean was the first Inspector General of Police of our motherland.

According to what has been enshrined saliently in the 1992 constitution of Ghana, the Ghana Police Service shall be equipped and be maintained to perform traditional role of maintaining law and order.

Aside the above, the constitution spells out audaciously within the broad framework of Article 200 (3) of the 1992 Constitution and the Police Service Act, 1970 (Act 350) emphatically Section I (1) of the Police Service Act that: it is expected of the police to undertake core roles such as protection of life and property, prevention and detection of crime as well as the apprehension (arresting) and prosecution of offenders (putting an arrested person before court or trial body), preservation of peace, good order and the due enforcement of laws and regulations.

The Ghana police personnel is mandated by the laws of Ghana to also possess statutory prowess of arrest under section 10 of Act 30/60 of the Criminal Procedure Code which includes the power to arrest with a warrant, without a warrant, without a warrant on reasonable grounds amongst others.

The general recruitment training for the personnel which is usually for a minimum of six (6) months is conducted at Winneba (for officers), Accra, Kumasi, Ho, Koforidua and Pwalugu for some time now.

Like other agencies, the Ghana Police has ranks which are Police constable, Lance Corporal, Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Superintendent, Chief Superintendent, Assistant commissioner of Police, Commissioner of Police and Inspector General of police (IGP).The first rank assumed by Ghana Police men (officers not inclusive) after the general six months recruit training is the Constable position.

I am teary eyed to discover that, on paper thus theoretically the swearing of oath and code of ethics of the Ghana Police Service are expected to serve as gambits for guiding the police to be disciplined in the course of undertaking their duties but in reality that has not been fully achieved.

For instance, if we should go by what has been enshrined in the code of conducts then it is even not appropriate to see police men in uniforms at the popular “blue kiosk” joints sipping some “apio” per the Ghana Police Service Act 1970 (ACT 350) Section 17 or to appear boozed in the line of duty.

Furthermore, the Ghana Police have several requirements and procedures that have been elaborated blatantly on paper aimed at ensuring that quality as well as qualified people would be recruited, but in practice it has also become grim to an extent.

It is pertinent to note that because of the severe influence of some topmost politicians, some officials of higher rank in the service, some chiefs and the like, in most cases the recruitment requirements and procedures are ignored on the part of some applicants who do not qualify but in effect they miraculously find their way through to the service via the “back-door”.

That is to say, in practice because of human factors, institutional failure and other strands of conditions which I would lay bare in the next paragraphs, the implementation of these measures have failed to touch the outer edges, which is an instance depicting why we are lagging behind as a nation.

One significant fact that just jogged through my mind is that on the flip side of all the malpractices, crime and misconducts on the part of some police, we continue to aggravate situations by not being circumspect in the recruiting process as well as in the training process of the recruited police.

Sorrowfully, we are in a way hoodwinked to believe that all police men are saints since a statement on the official site of Ghana police for instance reads “Ghana is fortunate that the members of our police service are “all” honourable men and women, dedicated to serving and protecting the citizens of our community”.

In the same vein it is stomach-churning to know that both past and present people at the helm of affairs at the police service have only been good at setting up Committees of enquiry and coming out with reports on such issues but have failed to implement some unequivocal recommendations made by the Committees in a way. With this said, let us note that organised crimes and crimes in general as well as the violation of the codes of conducts in the Ghana Police profession are based on vast array of factors such as biological, social, economic, psychological, physical and sometimes political motives amongst others.

Individual factors such as selfishness, greed, corruption, opportunism, a deadly innate feature of human amongst others have resulted in where we are today as a nation (biological and human factors). I would vent my spleen at our chiefs, political icons and people of eminence who out of greed and selfishness use their influence to get people recruited into the service.

For instance, in 2015 COP Patrick Timbillah who was the director general of police in charge of human resource at the Ghana police service was arrested for what has been described by many as the biggest Police recruitment scam and was interdicted after two years of investigation.

Thus, if people found at the top echelons of the police service are engaged in such acts then it should not be new to see some “rotten” individuals at the low ranks in uniforms as well. (Biological theorists and human factors).

In our Ghanaian society, where some people have the notion that since the police are on the Single Spine Salary Structure they are expected to have certain standard in the society such as own a house, or have a collection of posh cars and enjoy a bevy of gorgeous concubines amongst others, some Policemen might feel pressured in a way to climb the queer ladder of crime in the pursuit of the Ghanaian society's definition of who a successful policeman should be (Robert Merton, sociologist, strain theory).

People commit crimes having weighed the benefits and cost of their actions (rational choice theory) and realised is a win-win situation for them (game theory, economics).

In an occasion where the police feel that crime can be conducted with minimal risk based on the fact that they are in uniform, they are likely to go into such acts. On the part of their accomplices (civilians) as in the Weija issue, they are also into this probably because they feel they have the backing prowess of these criminal police friends of theirs hence the proclivity to do this.

The Schizophrenic “winner-takes-all” effect trickled from our politics down to the Police Service is also a reason for such occurrences (institutional or structural factors). Our police service is in such a way that it has now become an avenue for providing job for the boys and a means for appreciating some individuals who contributed to the political success of a party such that if party A or B wins they inconsiderately recruit some unqualified people who are party card bearing members which whittle some individuals who have genuine passion for the work in a way. Now to consider it from the economics perspective, people go into such acts usually to get themselves out of the grip of economic hardship, poverty amongst other financial quagmire.

We have these bad nuts amongst the service probably because people joined not out of passion but as a way of saving their skin from the looming unemployment situation in the country.

Finally, I want to extend my warm appreciation to the enormous policemen who see the police as a clarion call and sacrifice their time, talent and sometimes their very own lives for our sake.

I extol the policemen who are superb, dutiful and tact, those ones who strive day and night for our national security who have earned incontestable praise for their sterling success in ensuring safety on the part of the Ghanaian people.

The few with unprofessional standards have dented the image of the noble profession but I believe with a multipronged approach we can achieve.

The guns are therefore blazing at the police to be vigilant so as to defy the odds and assist in bringing to book their disorderly colleagues hiding behind the mask of the police uniform to commit rabid crimes against the innocent people they are expected to shield.

The police service must ensure apposite sanctions are given to the police (both higher and lower ranks) that would be caught up in the nest for engaging in recruitment anomaly and in other crimes when the need arises.

These sanctions must be without delay in processes to deter other prospective offenders.

I am therefore delighted that the Inspector General of Police has been quick to call for the interdiction of the three policemen namely: Sergeant Stanley Mensah, Corporal Emmanuel Takyi of Weija Police Station and Corporal Simon Osei of Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) for dabbling in robbery by hiring out AK 47 riffle to robbers and I pray they would be made to go through the full-cycled rigors of the law.

The Inspector General of Police and his hard-working team deserve some praise too for retrieving the AK47 rifle involved in this issue.

In subsequent recruitments, applicants must be treated fairly in a way that issues of favouritism, nepotism and corruption within the recruitment process of the police services would automatically wane out in a way while giving room for recruiting a diversity of police from all regions within the country who meet up the laid down requirements.

The various machinations of “protocols” and the officers who have made themselves puppets to be used by some politicians, officers at top ranks in the service and chiefs to promulgate favouritism should be scuttled.

How in the name of Almighty Allah would we expect such things to change if we the civilians continue to mount pressure on our ministers, top police officers and chiefs to put our wards in the service even when we are aware our wards do not qualify? I lose my cool when I see the same people chasing the police officers around with brown paper, following the chiefs around with goats and the politicians with village plantains just to secure a place in the police service for their unqualified wards, ironically turn the next second and poke fun at these same people when we hear of such misdemeanor reports.

Let us change our ways as a people. I want to re-echo the words of COP Patrick Timbillah in his deceptive but somewhat relevant speech to indict prospective recruits to use appropriate means in entering the police service, where he opined that “recruitment into the police service is not like buying groundnut by the roadside.”

I believe it is high time the police officers plainly saved their names by standing firmly against “protocol” both by working on themselves and by standing against the big men engaged in this corrupt act, if possible they should name and shame.

The recruitment process should, however, permit effective and detailed screening for criminal records to ensure moral eligibility.

It should not be a mere thing stated on the website of the Ghana police but should be observed strictly.

The Police service should do critical and well-scrutinized background checks on applicants as part of the recruiting process.

For some of us, we cannot wait to adore the National identification card, on grounds that we believe it would go a long way in making such checks easier to an extent.

The onus is also on the Police service to have and maintain proper documentation of crime. The training should be asphalted on re-orienting the police to transcend beyond the petty notions of seeing the service as a mere means of survival.

It should focus on ways of orienting new employees such as thoroughly discussing potential disciplinary action and by way of some senior officials involved in the training exhibiting acts worthy of emulation to them practically as well(mentoring by senior officers with quality attitudes).

The post recruitment and post-training stages of the service should consider short-term sandwich courses, refresher courses and seminars which should be promptly organised for the policemen to keep them constantly reminded of their oath taken and the professional work ethics.

This stage should if possible have regular incentive packages for men in the service who would epitomize the ethics of the profession or put up the amour of disciplined behaviour in their line of duty.

I believe if this is done others would be encouraged to conform in an equivalent manner.

There should be effective means to check duty absenteeism amongst other acts. I also feel some bureaucracies in the recruitment process should be scrapped off if possible as some of them only serve as citadels for corruption.

The officers at the top ranks should bury their political differences and the sort so as to ensure that top appointments and promotions would be done strictly based on laid down laws and regulations when the need arises.

I believe if this is done it would go a long way in preventing unqualified and corrupt officers from filling the top positions.

In a self-effacing manner, I want to remind his Excellency Nana Addo that the provision of jobs as well as the one district one factory policy should not be delayed like the “second coming of Christ” but should be made fast like a whipped horse in a keenly contested race.

This would cause the Ghanaian people to pile praise on you with your name written in our annals as “oseadeyo” rather than “King Promise”.

I believe if Government performs its role in the social contract as noted by Edward Azar, by way of accelerating the provision of a lot of jobs, the youth would get employed in their various professions of interest.

We would, as a result, be assured of police recruitment devoid of people who have no love for the job in a way as the Bible notes that “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

I plead that the various political heads in the country would come to adopt an approach aimed at curbing the infiltrations of winner-takes-all and “survival of the fittest” phenomenon which had influenced promotions, recruitments amongst others in the Police service and other national security apparatus for some time now. God bless mother Ghana.

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By: Osei Godfred Amankwah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana