‘Tamale Rampaging Soldiers Not Above The Law, Punish Them’ – Nunoo Mensah

Former National Security Advisor Brigadier General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (rtd) has charged the law enforcement agencies and the top hierarchy of the Ghana Armed Forces to deal ruthlessly with military men who assaulted police officers in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale.

General Nunoo-Mensah who was speaking to Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe, host of the Morning Xpress on Radio XYZ, condemned the barbaric attack on the cops that resulted in the injury of six (6).

About one hundred police officers within the Tamale metropolis were attacked by some yet-to -be identified soldiers on Wednesday afternoon.

This action is reported to have been embarked upon after some officials of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the police service arrested a soldier who had reportedly assaulted his wife.

The angry soldiers attacked the police officer and other officials who had gone to arrest the soldier, subsequently freed their colleague, and launched a sporadic attack on almost all police officers in the capital who were in uniform.

But General Nunoo- Mensah, a security expert, believes the current assault case is despicable and the perpetrators should not go unpunished.

“If they have committed an offence, the laws are there, they should be dealt with…We have to get a deterrent to stop these,” he maintained.

He likened the relationship between the police and the military to a cat and mouse one and urged authorities to tackle it well to avert any future occurrence.

The security expert said the military men “always feel superior over the police,” adding that “shouldn’t be the case” because they are not above the laws of the country.

“If you are a military man, you are subject to civil law, you are subject to criminal law, you are subject to military law,” he emphasized.

He therefore advised that authorities in the two security agencies to “have durbars and educate them to know they are subject to the law.” He stressed “the police hierarchy, the military hierarchy has a lot to do to still educate our rank and file to understand that we are not above the law,”

According to him, there should be durbars and other ways to educate military and police personnel on how to conduct themselves in public, and point out to them that “nobody is above the law.”

“The police and the military have to work together,” he advised, saying civilians have nowhere to turn to in times of difficulty if there is no peace among the two security agencies.

Meanwhile, the police administration is unhappy about the situation, especially as the attack was the third in a few months in that part of the country.

XYZ News has picked signals that a group of police officials, led by the Inspector General of police (IGP), Mr David Asante-Appeatu will be meeting the police force in Tamale.