Youth Parliament calls security officers to order

The Speaker of Youth Leadership Parliament Ghana, Rt. Hon. Kobby Fabian is calling on the hierarchy of the Military High Command, the Ghana Police Service and the National Service Authority, to look into allegations of beatings and abuse by some officers of their outfits.

This is evident in some videos on social media, where security personnel were seen using excessive force to control frustrated students at registration centers for this year’s National Service registration exercise.

A few months ago, our nation witnessed the gruesome beatings and murder of an honorable citizen of this land, a day we wish never came, our dear Major Maxwell Mahama, may his soul rest in perfect peace, lost his life in the hands of wicked faceless individuals who took the law into their own hands and administered instant justice in their imagination of him as guilty of robbery. Such an act received wide condemnation from the Presidency, Military, Police force and entire nation.

It was a moment of lesson to us all and especially to those who use the application of undue force and beatings as a remedy to correcting an offence.

As an advocacy platform of a Parliament, which champion the course youth in across the country for better leadership and governance, with over 25,000 following across the country , has received many calls and complaints from students regarding the poor handling of the national service registration exercise in the various centers, is consequential to the confusion and frustration of students .

We are very much aware of the dedication of our military and police services in protecting our country and maintaining law and order but we condemn and frown of the use of unnecessary use of force and beating with baton as seen by some officers , which clearly only aggravated the frustration of students.

This could have caused panic and stampede and subsequently the loss of lives.

It was a bad example and demonstration of unprofessional conduct by these officers, at a time when efforts are being made by many civil societies to change the attitudes of the youth on matters of instant justice and corporal public punishment.

In this 21st century of technology, with thousands of students to register across the country, it is practically untenable and cumbersome process to manually register thousands of students across the country. It is about time an electronic registration process is introduced to speed and facilitate this exercise.

The youth of this country are ready and poised to serve their country and must be treated with some dignity and respect in the process of subscribing to do.

Those who break the law must be arrested and taken away but not beaten and abused under any circumstance.