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NPP Guru Nabbed for Hacking Rawlings’ Dog to Death

Sat, 12 Oct 2013 Source: Adofo, Rockson

Cruelty to animals is a criminal offence punishable by arrest and in most cases, custodial sentence. I have just read on Ghanaweb how one Mr Kwesi Banahene, a Constituency Council of Elders member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in South Tongo Constituency in the Volta region, has been apprehended by the police for allegedly mutilating to death a pet dog belonging to former President Jerry John Rawlings.

? My worry is not about the man been arrested for his heinous crime if indeed, he did act as accused of. However, moving him from one police station to the other and as far as the Police Headquarters in Accra is my big worry. One may ask, does the magnitude of his alleged crime warrant shuttling him between police stations until the Police Headquarters without bail? May I ask, has he killed a human being, or involved himself in a failed attempted usurpation (coup d’état) of John Mahama’s presidency or any other forms of treasonable offence? If not, what is the ulterior motive of the police behind moving the man between various police cells in various towns or areas?

? I am still curious to probe deeper into why the man killed the dog as informed the public by both Rawlings (the accuser) and the police (the arrestor). Did the man (the accused) kill the dog in self defence? Was the dog attacking him and if answered in the affirmative, where, when, how and why? Did Rawlings intentionally set the dog upon him? Where did the man get the machete with which he hacked the dog to death? Was he already in possession of the weapon before using it on the dog or he dashed for it when he was being or about to be attacked by the dog? Who gave him the machete or it did belong to him? I can keep on asking never-ending questions but let me limit myself to the few questions indicated above.

? I wonder why the Ghana security forces are very much jerky and always ready to execute "selective justice" in cases involving NDC persons as complainants? The police should aspire to live above reproach. Their attitudes to be jumpy, dancing to the tune in favour of the NDC and their agents and assigns in all matters all of the time make mockery of them. It shows how unprofessional and partisan they are.

? I do not support the man in question killing the dog if indeed he did, except, he did it as a last resort in self defence. Nonetheless, the treatment meted out to him by the police until now is wrong. They had better offer him bail, process him for Court and stop moving him about as the Ghana Prison Services did to Ken Kuranchie, the Managing Editor of Searchlight Newspaper when Supreme Justice Atuguba and his colleagues sentenced him to a ten-day imprisonment.

? This is my brief view on the arrest and the police attitude in regards of the NPP guru and the allegation levelled against him by former President Jeremiah John Rawlings. When did Rawlings realise that his pet dog’s life is worth more than a human being’s? Wonders will never end in Ghana. Histories are made on daily basis in Ghana and one is in the making now. ? ? Rockson Adofo ? ?

Columnist: Adofo, Rockson