‘The police station is not a palace’ – Mustapha Gbande to Dampare

The National Democratic Congress appears to be disappointed in the position of the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, on the ‘war inviting’ comments made by the Agric Minister, Bryan Acheampong.

The Deputy General Secretary of the party, Mustapha Gbande, speaking on Accra based Neat FM, noted that the IGP should work with the systems and mechanisms as prescribed by the law.

According to him, there are mechanisms that have been prescribed by the law on how to deal with offenders who commit various crimes which modern innovations should not replace.

“We already have well documented laws that form mechanisms we use to combat crime. Innovations do not negate those mechanisms,” he said.

Mr. Gbande noted that the one of such mechanisms is the concept of ‘innocent till proven guilty by a court’. To him, the police doesn’t have the power to pronounce the status of a culprit unless he or she is declared by a court of law.

“One of such mechanisms is the notion of, innocent until proven guilty by court, the police cannot pronounce anybody guilty or otherwise, they don’t have that power. And law does not state that Ghana Police Service should be able to, with their mind pronounce somebody guilty before they take the person to court”.

“The mechanism is such that, he continued, once a complaint is made by a Ghanaian, or any human being, having the capacity to make a complain, the law enjoins the police to immediately invite the suspect,” he continued.

For him, it is worrying that the police are selective on prosecuting crimes committed by politicians.

“But the IGP is telling us today that when there is a crime related to politicians, he wants to set up a legal department to examine, it is not his work. The police station is not a palace… it is a place that offenders are taken to,” he added.

"The law", he said, "teaches that we are all equal before that law”.

Background:

The Ghana Police Service described as ‘not criminal’, comments that were made by the Agric Minister, Bryan Acheampong; Former President, John Mahama; and Chairman of the NDC, Aseidu Nketiah.

The Inspector General of Police, Dr. Akuffo Dampare, said this following a meeting held with the leaders of both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

It will be recalled that the Minister for Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, during the NPP’s Arise and Build Health Walk in Kwahu, was captured saying that the governing National Patriotic Party (NPP) will not hand power over to the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, in 2024.

The former president on a campaign platform is also reported to have said in 2020 that the NDC was ready to match the NPP ‘boot-for-boot’ and in another instance, that the upcoming elections will be a do-or-die affair.

On his part, the chairman of the NDC in his victory speech, was also captured saying that the NDC is prepared to sacrifice everything, including their lives, to achieve victory.

Ever since, both parties and other individuals and groups have written to or called on the police CID, to arrest the people involved for making what they describe as inciteful remarks.

It is on the back of this that the IGP said the comments as made by the politicians, failed the criminal threshold test thereby making it unlawful to arrest the persons involved as it’s been demanded by both parties.

In a newspaper report by the DailyGuide, on April 20, 2023, stated that the police briefed both political parties on initiatives it has taken to ensure a safe election environment leading to the 2024 election.

Key among them are the National Election Security Task Force Secretariat (NEST) and the Legal Unit to probe all politically related incidents to determine if it warrants arrest or not.

Meanwhile, watch the latest SayItLoud episode on GhanaWeb TV below:





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