The Unacceptable Face Of Ghana’s Law Enforcement System

On 10 October 10, 2018, the Daily Guide newspaper carried this report: Quote:

“Amansie Police Free 6 Galamseyers”

“The Excavator Tracking Task Force of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining [IMCIM] arrested a Chinese [man] and six Ghanaians in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region [on 6 October 2018] for engaging in illegal mining [galamsey]. The suspects were handed over to the Amansie West Police, but the six Ghanaians surprisingly escaped from police custody. (Emphasis added).

“The Task Force said the Chinese [man] would be handed over to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) for the necessary action to be taken.

“…After the arrest, the Task Force handed the suspects to the police, in order to follow up on leads to [another] illegal mining site. However, (Mr Meniru added) upon [their] return to the police station, they did not meet any of the police personnel and realized that [the] six Ghanaians had escaped from the cells. (Emphasis added).

“Mr Meniru stated further that while they were at the mining site, some police personnel came there to arrest them [members of the Task Force] upon the request of one of the illegal miners. He, therefore, appealed to the Government to assist the Task Force in its efforts to halt galamsey.

“Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, said the Committee would launch an investigation into the escape of the six Ghanaians. He reaffirmed that [anyone] found culpable would be dealt with accordingly”.

http://dailyguideafrica.com/amansie-police-free-6-galamseyers/ Unquote

There are two glaring anomalies, relating to the way the police treat galamsey offences, that the Daily Guide report lays bare. One is that the police often obstruct, rather than assist, those the employers of the police (i.e. the Government) has appointed to bring galamsey operations to an end. If the police set free, or, through negligence, allow people who have been caught carrying out galamsey to escape from custody, how can the Task Force go on arresting galamseyers?

The members of the Task Force would be super-human if they didn’t tell one another, upon coming across galamseyers: “Oh, leave them alone! Don’t bother! The police will only let them go if we arrest them! So what's the point of arresting them?”

One wonders whether the police actually want to incite the Government to take away the powers of the police to arrest and prosecute galamseyers, and invest those powers in the IMCIM! Maybe the IMCIM should ask for the secondment of personnel from the prosecution service to carry out the prosecution of galamseyers under the auspices of IMCIM, rather than under the normal prosecution service?

For it is as if all the noise that has been made about how galamsey is ruining our water-bodies and should be ruthlessly rooted out if future generations of Ghanaians are to get good water to drink, has not reached the ears of some members of the Ghana police.

A second glaring anomaly is that the police do not seem to recognize the credentials of Task Force members. This may be because some of the Task Force members have not been issued with correct identification papers. If that is so, it should be corrected immediately. But I wonder whether htat notion can be backed by the facts.

Indeed if, on the other hand, the police knewthat the Task Force members were on genuine, official duty but chose to threaten them with arrest for engaging with galamseyers, then the Government is faced with a very serious situation. For it would mean that sections of the Ghana Police force are deliberately disobeyingthe orders of the elected Government, which are to arrest and prosecute galamseyoperators, in furtherance of the Government’s ban on galamsey.

Now, The Minister of the Interior, under whose overall supervision the police operate, is a member of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) that is in charge of the anti-galamsey campaign. Are we to infer from the Amansie West case that the police have not been properly briefed on the campaign by their Minister? How can that be, when the main body spearheading the campaign over the past year, Operation Vanguard, is composed of army and police personnel operating on a fifty-fifty basis?

It may well be that there has been a communications gap somewhere in the chain of command of the police, as regards the anti-galamsey campaign. If so, steps should be taken to fill that gap as quickly as possible, so that the police would become, once again, the trusted “arrest-and-prosecute” arm of both Operation Vanguard and the relatively new IMCIM Excavator Tracking Task Force.

It is extremely important that no confusion whatsoever should be allowed to exist between the functions of the district police establishments and the Task Force(s) spearheading anti-galamsey operations. In an ideal world, the Task Force(s) would send signals ahead to local police establishments, announcing their intention to carry out operations in their districts. But past experience has taught the Task Force(s) that informing the police ahead of operations can lead to galamseyersbeing tipped off to vacate their sites – together with their equipment – before the arrival of the Task Force(s). This has to be explained patiently to all the local police personnel in the galamsey areas.

Most important of all, our military and police personnel must be made aware that the central purpose of the anti-galamsey campaign is to safeguard our water-bodies so that our villagers do not need to find [non-existent] money to buy sachet water, when they want to quench their thirst or cook their food. Neither should generations of Ghanaians yet unborn be condemned to an existence whereby they can only import good drinking water from abroad. Our ancestors had enough foresight not to rear us (the current generation) in a messy, waterless habitation. We, on our part, are therefore duty-bound to emulate the foresight of our ancestors and NOT act like animals who do not have a collective memory, nor are endowed with cognitive powers.

It is as simple a matter as that, and all policemen as well as their military and civilian counterparts, should understand it and play their part to ensure that galamsey is uprooted from our beautiful and resource-rich country.