An open letter to the IGP

Dear Sir, It is not an easy task for somebody in the bottom rung of our society to easily communicate with a superior officer like you. But I take consolation of the fact that you have a very good listening ear such that since you took over as Inspector General of Police (IGP) things have changed for the better in our Ghanaian society in terms of policing.

Have a very big thumb up for you and your administration. It is my prayer that you should have the strength to continue with your good work as God will reward you with good health and foresight to handle the situation of police work in Ghana.

For some time now the country is bedeviled with some jailbreaks in and in some circumstances the police is seen as an accomplice in some if not all the jailbreaks across the country. A very quite unfortunate situation.

But my concern is about the Upper West Region where I believe you come from. I want to appeal to you to take a very special interest in the region to save the people from criminal gangs and miscreants who wants to destroy once a very calm place with all the beauty it deserves.

If something pragmatic is not done we shall be heading towards a lawless state where the concept of natural selection as espoused by Charles Darwin will be the order of the day, as only the mighty will eventually survive.

Already I must mention that mob action has taken the better part of this wonderful Upper West society, until now a very calm place. I write as a ‘foreigner’ who has come into the region as a civil servant. I have been following media reports about the Upper West Regional police command and the least said about them the better. I will only create some few scenarios for you to make up your mind about them.

The first instance is in the area of motor bike thefts where the police are believed to be part of a ring of gangsters who are busy stealing motor bike and are running an underworld business. In fact it is believed that they have a place where they will steal motor bikes and dismantle them and then sell the parts or cross over into the neighboring countries.

A story was told of the police in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, where somebody reported that he has found his motor with this group of gangsters and the police led him there, lo and behold, some arrests were made and on their way coming the police station, the police officer detailed to arrest the gangster was rather telling the victim to settle the matter among themselves. In fact the man made a full complaint to the regional police command and true to their word the police officer involved was kept in their ‘guard room’ for his bad advice. On this occasion one must say that the police regional command acted well.

Another thing we must look is the fact that some civil servants are leaving the Upper West region due to insecurity on daily basis. A woman was riding her motor bike under broad day light and she was flagged down by some thugs little did she know that they were wielding cutlass and all they needed to do is to take the motor bike away from her. The next two months saw the woman and her husband leaving the region on transfer. This must be looked at very carefully since lack of insecurity is now the bane of the Upper West region.

Sir your officers in the region are not living up to expectation. Most of them have stayed long enough in the region and certain crimes are no longer acts to them. Some of your officers are now cattle owners who own large kraals across the region. And sir if you look at it carefully in the region cattle rustling is on the ascendency. This must be watched.

It is not wrong for a police officer to own a kraal but if that is done with an element of dishonesty and the sacrifice of peace and security, sir what will you say to that? If you go to the Wa police station always the Fulani chief in Wa is constantly at the station exchanging cattle for the freedom of his Fulani subjects who are in trouble.Isnt this a worrying situation sir? Look at carefully sir.

Sir one last thing is that you need to look at your officers very well as they must be tracked by the system. One way to do this very well is when you do not allow any police officer in the region to last up to five years since it is the source of all they being accomplices in some criminal situations.

The reason being that the Upper West Region is an enclosed society especially the regional capital Wa, where everybody knows the other.Infact sir you will be sad to learn that people who have been declared as ‘hardened criminals’, have friends with the police here in the Upper West and could bail their fellow criminals in police cells. The question is with what surety?

It is not that the entire situation is a hopeless one. In the midst of all these happenings and bad policing not to mention massive corruption and property grabbing by the police in the Upper West Region, I must say that there are hardworking ones who are still flying your flag very high.

To such people we doff our hats to them. But sir the bad nuts seem to outnumber the good ones. And sir its only one monkey that will destroy a corn farm and all monkeys will be labeled as farm destroyers.

The other day some thugs were so daring that they trailed a man who went to the bank to cash forty thousand Ghana cedis and when he parked his vehicle little did he know he was been trailed. And in a ‘Rambo and Hollywood style’, phew, the entire money was gone under a very broad day light robbery with amazement on the face of all.

So sir that is the current situation in the Upper West Region which demands your attention. Most of these stories are also being swept under the carpet by some journalists in the region for reasons best known to them.

And so sir if I want to go on with what is really happening in the Upper West Region so far as policing is concerned I will behave like a nagging woman to her husband who fails to perform his ‘manly duties’. But sir these points raised should not be glossed over for the police administration makes it possible

I am not too familiar with the constitution but somewhere the constitution says that a person charged with a criminal offence shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court. Here my police friends in the Upper West have a problem as their human rights records are not good.

Sir you know that tip-off is the modus operandi of the police but the Upper West police act differently when they are tipped off. Look at that too sir. The manner they give away informants leading to their deaths leaves much to be desired.

I will rest my cases and pray that you look at these issues raised critically since you know too well that heresy is part of police enquiry process. Thanks in advance for hearing me sir!

Twumasi Akrong

Email:Twumasi.akrong@yahoo.com

Wa.U.W.R