Police Service is being reckless

The Ghana Police Service has come under serious criticisms following various acts of ‘recklessness’ in the discharge of their duties.

Many have indeed described their action as unprofessional because to them it is not right to shoot-to-kill innocent people all in the name of performing their duties.

A recent act by the police which has angered residents of Akwatia line in Kumasi is the shooting of a 35-year old man, Rashid Mohammed.

According to the police, the deceased was a suspected armed robber who resisted arrest and threatened to hit the police with a sharp axe. However, according to residents, the allegations by the police are false. They claim the victim was innocent, unarmed and physically challenged and posed no threat to the police at the time of the innocent.

Meanwhile, the incident has left a three week old baby orphaned because her mother died at birth, leaving her in the care of his father (Rashid) who has incidentally shot by the police on Tuesday.

Annoyed by the incident, a section of the residents staged a massive demonstration against the police demanding the immediate release of Mohammed’s body for burial, in accordance with Muslim tradition.

But the police refused to release the body, which had been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) mortuary for autopsy.

The refusal of the police to release Mohammed’s body for burial agitated the demonstrators, who started throwing stones and other implements at the police, who responded by firing tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

A journalist, Erastus Asare Donkor, who was also covering the incident, was allegedly manhandled by the police. His iPad and a recorder were snatched from him by the police as they reportedly dragged him on the ground.

Prior to this, other innocent Ghanaians have been shot dead including their (Police) own colleagues.

Speaking to the issue on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’, Managing Editor of the Gye Nyame Concord, Alfred Ogbamey said the fact that the police is mandated to maintain law and order and to fight corruption, does not mean that they are to take the law into their own hands; killing and abusing innocent citizens. He does not understand why the police now shoot to kill instead of firing a warning shot.

“If you don’t take care people will start using that as an excuse and be killing people here and there…it is getting out of hand. Unless they are not taught how to shoot or when to shoot, otherwise, this is becoming a serious problem which is beyond understanding. Are we improving their condition to become reckless and irresponsible? It is true there are miscreants and everybody is not perfect, but that is no justification to shoot and kill,” Alfred stated.

Commenting on the same issue, Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West, Ursula Owusu also called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Alhassan to intervene and put the police service in order. She is of the view that the “Buga Buga” way of treating civilians is becoming too prevalent.

“Even though there are good men and women in the police service, the few bad nuts are tarnishing their image and reputation….The buga buga mentality is becoming too much. You just arrest the person and then brutalise them; why are we still in the Stone Age? As part of their training, they should emphasis that the citizens especially the victims, have rights and so there are limits they can go in enforcing the law because I think that is where the problem is. I will plead with them to weed out the bad nuts so that people will appreciate the good service they are rendering," the NPP MP said.