Delta Force attack: Don’t incriminate the Police – Lawyer

Ghanaians must desist from blaming the Police for recent attacks and unlawful acts by the Invincible Forces and other vigilante groups in the country, private legal practitioner Clara Beeri has said.

According to her, the invincible forces are powerful because they belong to and are protected by political parties in the country.

“There are many calling on the police to act and bring miscreants describing themselves or being described as Invincible Forces or Delta Forces to book for taking the law into their own hands. Now, we cannot pretend that we do not know or have not been told that the Invincible or Delta Forces are the internal security of the political party that forms the ruling government. Neither can we pretend that we do not know that the major opposition party is reported to have its own internal security called Azorka Boys. So on this occasion, let us try not to play the ostrich,” she noted.

Miss Clara Beeri Kasser-Tee's comments follow the rowdy and unlawful activities and forceful takeovers of state organisations and facilities been carried out by Invincible Forces alleged to be affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), after the party was declared winner in the December 2016 elections.

In recent reports a vigilante group calling itself Delta Force stormed the premises of the Regional Coordinating Council in the Ashanti Region and manhandled the Security Coordinator who was appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and also destroyed some properties on the premises on Friday.

The group said Mr. Adjei did not contribute to the party’s electoral success in the 2016, hence they cannot work with him.

Many groups including the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and individuals have called on the president and the IGP to disband those groups.

Many have also blamed the Police for their inability to deal with the situation.

But according to the Managing Partner at Kasser Law Firm, the police must not be made scapegoats of the havocs being wrecked by the groups.

“You are a policeman/woman. Your family's sustenance depends on you. You bring in the only pay check that caters for your children, your nieces, your nephews, your uncles, your aunties, etc. You are worried about the security of your job. You probably know some people who ever went against these kinds of political groups- you know policemen/women who probably lost their jobs or other opportunities for going against these kinds of people,” she explained.

In a Facebook post, she said the issue was a threat to the country’s security and needed parliamentary debates to seek measures for immediate redress.

The debate, she said must include how the police would be protected while dealing with the “bloody” groups.

“I think this is where MPs should be having a debate on how to ensure national security for all of us and nib these cases in the bud before it gets worse. The debate must include how to protect policemen/women who bring members of these groups to book for breaching the law,” she emphasized.