Mampong shootings: Policy review is in order

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

Feb. 14, 2016

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The shooting deaths of some two brothers in Asante-Mampong on Wednesday, Feb. 10, is very disturbing and one that requires immediate investigation. The brothers, only one of whose name was given as Francis Benneh, obviously because the latter is said to have been an instructor at the Mampong Midwifery Training College, and thus of a relatively higher social status, had been mistaken for burglars by the local police who had reportedly been called to the scene by some neighborhood residents (See “IGP Must Set Up Independent Investigative Committee – MP” Kasapafmonline.com /Ghanaweb.com 2/14/16).

We are told that when the police arrived on the scene, they spotted Mr. Benneh and the other man, who turned out to have been his brother, on their motorcycle and proceeded to discharge their loaded weapons almost immediately at the pair. Altogether, we are told that there were four police officers at the scene. As of this writing, all four police officers were reported to have been taken off active duty, largely as a result of the trauma they sustained from the incident. Mr. Francis Addai-Nimoh, the Asante-Mampong Member of Parliament, is reported to have called on Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mr. Kudalor to establish a committee of investigators to enquire into the matter.

The MP’s call is perfectly in order, except that it would have been more appropriate for Mr. Addai-Nimoh to have first called on Mr. Kofi Boakye, the Commissioner of Police (COP) for the Asante Region. Mr. Addai-Nimoh has been in the business of politics for quite some time now and ought have been aware of the fact that there is a neatly demarcated chain of command in the Ghana Police Service. At any rate, there ought to be clearly laid-down policies for identifying criminal suspects at any scene where a crime is reported to be in progress before law-enforcement agents resort to the discharging of their firearms.

For instance, when the police officers first arrived on the scene and spotted the Benneh Brothers taking off on their motorcycle, their first reaction ought to have been for these officers to have used their bullhorns or megaphones to demand that the pair stop their vehicle, raise their hands up in the air in a show of unconditional surrender and identify themselves. If our police officers do not have bullhorns and megaphones, then they ought to be promptly supplied or equipped with the same. Procedures also have to be established whereby the officers’ first order of business, if they are forced by unforeseen circumstances to discharge their weapons, ought to be to shoot to maim or disable, not to kill instantly, unless, of course, officers at the scene of a crime have ample reason to believe that the criminal suspects are armed with deadly weapons and pose an immediate danger to the lives of these proverbial first responders.

So far, all the available evidence shows that during the three decades that yours truly has been out of the country, Ghana has increasingly become a very violent society with a lot of guns, both licensed and unlicensed, in wide circulation among the general population. This is an area bordering on the quality of our national life where the government could launch a gun buy-back campaign, with no penalties or threats of penalties targeted at those who decide to promptly comply with the law by handing in their weapons at designated police posts and / or stations. A period of amnesty, such as six months or even a year, could be stipulated after which all civilians found to be carrying and/or in illegal possession of guns and other forms of deadly assault weapons could be promptly and rigorously prosecuted.

But, of course, the preceding gun-control measures could only be effective if general public safety and security in the country are significantly boosted. Short of the preceding measures, and a few others recommended by law-enforcement and national-security experts, any attempt to stem the high tide of violence and insecurity in the country would be akin to taking a wicker basket to the stream or riverside to fetch water.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs.