Policing At The Chereponi Bye-Election Was Better

Before the bye-election at the Chereponi constituency on the 29th September, 2009, I had written an article stating that, the election was not only going to be about who won it alone, but also it was going to be a test case for the Ghana Police Service.

My thoughts were build based on the Akwatia re-rerun which saw the professionalism of the Ghana police service called to question as a result of certain occurrences which was not very pleasant for a fledgling democracy like that of Ghana.

The Chereponi Bye-election therefore could not have been any other best occasion for the Ghana police Service to prove its sceptics wrong including yours truly. I must say the Ghana police did their maximum best to ensure that, the election achieved the success that it achieved.

While it is imperative to commend the Electoral Commission of Ghana for conducting a smooth election, the Police must also be given tons of praises for ensuring that, miscreants and blood thirty persons did not get the opportunity to unleash unnecessary havoc on the people. To this I say kudos to the Ghana Police Service for a good work done!!

While commending the police for a good work, it is also surprising to say that, inspite of all the pre-election warnings that the police issued to the public in the media some persons were still daring to go to Chereponi even though there had no duty to perform there! It will be recall that, some thugs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were prevented from entering Chereponi on the Election Day.

You see, preventing those persons from entering Chereponi to me was not enough. Since those persons violated a consistent warning not to go near Chereponi if they had nothing doing there, my expectation was that, the police would have arrested them and at least ‘profile’ them against any disturbances during elections.

The question to ask is that, why were these persons so daring to go to a constituency on a day that they were not only warned not to go but also they had nothing to do? What trilled them to go there? and why did the police not arrest them?

On the Election Day it was reported that, two persons who tried to snatch ballot boxes were arrested and sent to Yendi police station. It is very good that, the police did very well to arrest those persons who could go to a constituency where it was reported that, one thousand police officers were on duty and also each of the 55 polling stations was mounted by six armed police officers to snatch ballot boxes!! This is not any bravery for any one to be proud of. It was just another example of what political hoodlums can do even in the midst of well armed security officers.

I don’t think those persons, who I will call criminals wanted the armed police officers who were on duty at the said polling stations to either ran away or salute them when they descended at the place to ‘kidnap’ ballot boxes and say to them “You are brave take the boxes away”

My suggestion is that, those persons who were arrested must have the law fall on them like a sedimentary rock. At least to serve as a deterrent to would-be hooligans who have notoriety of disrupting peaceful elections.

Much as the police did an effective work at the Chereponi constituency with a thousand officers, the question to ask is that, if there is to be an election in the entire country on the same day, and time will the Ghana Police service be able to raise one thousand police officers per constituency for all the 230 constituencies in Ghana? If the answer is no then what it means is that, we still have a long journey to go in our quest for peaceful and violent free elections in Ghana.

The first step to getting solutions to this problem in my opinion is the very politicians who recruit these persons who are mostly unemployed for these activities. The logic is that, no person who is in active employment will abandon his work and go to a constituency that he may not even know its terrain to die!

Secondly, there must be in place an ongoing public education targeting the youth to shun violence during elections. They must be told that, their willingness to die for somebody to achieve his or her ambition in life can not be said to be a reasonable decision.

Civil society groups, religious groups, chiefs, Non governmental organisations etc must also join in the public education crusade against violence during elections. It is simply needless to make election grounds battle fields. May I conclude by congratulating the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for winning the bye- election and to also commend the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for accepting defeat elegantly! May I also laud the electorate of the Chereponi constituency for exercising their franchise the way that they did. This is what makes democracy beautiful.

Akilu Sayibu, UK.

Email: Akilu.sayibu@live.uwe.ac.uk