Let’s take Donkorkrom mayhem seriously – Irbard

Security agencies in the country must take the Donkorkrom mayhem seriously, security analyst Irbard Ibrahim has warned, adding that here is the need for a purely non-partisan approach to be adopted by the Ghana Police Service in its recruitment process to avoid drafting persons with shady character into the law enforcement body.

Mr Ibrahim’s suggestion follows a failed robbery involving two police officers who attacked and killed a GCB Bank bullion van driver as he transported money to the bank’s branch in the Afram Plains North district of the Eastern Region in the company of another police officer.

The offending police officers were arrested but escaped a day later as the car in which they were being transferred to the Eastern regional headquarters of the police service at Koforidua stopped at Nkawkaw to refuel.

The flight of the cops caused residents of Donkorkrom to hit the streets on Thursday, 18 August. The angry locals torched a police station in protest to the flight of the cops, which they harboured suspicions about.

Earlier, police at Donkorkrom fired tear gas and warning shots at the demonstrators injuring 15 of them with two in critical condition.

The fugitive cops have been re-arrested. Lance Corporal Kusi Abrokwah was re-arrested on the morning of Thursday while the second officer identified only as ‘Fire’ was picked up later in the afternoon on the same day at Adoagyiri, a suburb of Nkawkaw.

Speaking in an interview with Accra100.5FM on the matter, Mr Ibrahim said: “Someone who was a thief before being recruited into the [Police Service] will continue to steal [and so] to solve the first problem, there needs to be non-partisan recruitment in order to avoid corruption, …in order to cleanse the Ghana Police Service of all these men so that we get people that are cut out for the job.

“I have not seen in our history where Ghanaian youth have summoned such boldness to burn down a police station and so this case is a very serious one and I believe all these show that going forward as a country, the respect and confidence in the police will diminish.”