Open Letter to the IGP and Minister of National Security

Dear IGP & Minister,
I am privileged as a concerned Ghanaian desirous to assisting in the fight against the cancerously baneful corruption that has permeated every level of the Ghanaian institutions to bring pain upon ordinary Ghanaians, to publish this open letter for your attention. I hope you will accord the message herein conveyed the requisite scrutiny and action to avoid the shameful and condemnable recurrences of uncalled for police assaults on innocent persons and mourners going about paying their dead the befitting last respect.

With respect for you, may I ask, and be told, who is in charge of the Ghana Police force and who issues orders to them to act in what may seem to be critical but actually non-critical, situations, as may be disclosed in a minute? Is it the Inspector General of Police (Mr David Asante-Apeatu) or the Minister of National Security (Hon. Kan Albert Dapaah)?

Much as you and I know, the decentralization of the police force into regional and district levels with the attendant hierarchies, some decisions are meant to be taken by the police commandants in charge of the various regions or districts. Should this be the standing operational procedure, then, my next question to you is, can a traditional chief order the police to perform a duty in fulfillment of his personal mischievous agenda or otherwise? Has such a power been vested in the traditional chiefs of Ghana and if yes, could you please point me to the source to kill my curiosity?

Would you please clarify the following for me? Are the police there to needlessly involve themselves in chieftaincy disputes to tilt the balance in favour of one party in a chieftaincy dispute, whether or not that party is the guilty party in the case? Do the police have the right to decide at whim to attend a funeral for which they have not been invited with intent to give the organizers of the funeral, thus, the bereaved family, and the mourners, protection? If yes, for what reasons and on what basis are their decision informed?

Before you furnish me with answers to the few questions posed, I would like to bring to your attention an information reaching me where it is alleged that a prominent chief in the Ashanti region has approached the police at the Ashanti Regional Police Headquarters to proceed to Kumawu-Bodomase in October 2018 to cause disruption to a scheduled funeral. They are going there with intent to cause murder according to the allegation reaching me from a reliable source.

Please note this proverb very well; “If the marine iguana emerges from the water to inform you of the death of a crocodile, don’t mistrust it”. The reason for not being doubtful about the veracity of its announcement is that both dwell under the water hence they know better about each other and what prevails in their underwater habitat more than what you and I know or can tell. Subsequently, until proven otherwise, I shall not underestimate the said allegation because an adage holds it veritably clear that “once bitten, twice shy”

The funeral of the mother of Kumawuhene Barima Tweneboa Kodua V, one of the two rival chiefs in Kumawu, is scheduled to take place at Kumawu-Bodomase in October 2018. It is alleged that Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the acclaimed Asante “Overlord”, and “Kumawuhene” Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua and a queen, have been to the police at the Kumasi Central Police Station (Ashanti Regional Police Headquarters) to instruct them to attend the funeral with ill-intent.

How I hope you had contacted DCOP Kwesi Mensah Duku, the Ashanti Regional Police Commandant, to find out if his outfit has been approached as alleged and if yes, remind him of the duties of his police calling and who employed him.

I have already notified the Amnesty International and the Office of the United Nations Human Rights about my worries in this regard. I do not want to wait to see the repetition of the incidents where then DCOP Nathan Kofi Boakye was allegedly influenced to dispatch armed police personnel to Kumawu and/or Kumawu-Bodomase to cause mayhem directed at suppressing Barima Tweneboa Kodua V, the true royal of same matrilineal descent as the late warrior chief Barima Tweneboa Kodua I, the originator of the Kumawu paramount Kodua Stool.

Why should the police descend on a town or people with the excuse of going there to protect them but in the void of any public disturbances or danger to any of the people? They rather go in to cause a problem to enable them execute their tasked diabolical agenda.

Without bothering you that much, I shall advise you to check the enclosed video links to ensure that the police do not repeat same malicious agendas on Barima Tweneboa Kodua V and his sub-chiefs and supporters with the mourners inclusive in October 2018. If they cannot condole with him on the passing of his mother, they should not seek to compound his sorrows, please warn them.

Lest I forget, it is not only in Kumawu that we have two or more rival chiefs in Ghana. We have some in Accra in the Greater Accra region; some in Tuobodom in the Brong-Ahafo region; some in Suhyen in the Eastern region, just to mention a few. In all these areas, you will never hear of the police descending on any of the rival chiefs with intent to influence the outcome of their chieftaincy dispute by intending to oppress, main or kill any of the rival chiefs. However, why is it that it is only in Kumawu in the Ashanti region that the police are constantly in pursuit of ill-thought agenda to suppress or eliminate one of the rival chiefs who happens to be Barima Tweneboa Kodua V, the TRUE royal with about 95% of the subjects’ support and recognition?

Yours truly,
Rockson Adofo