Late Lance Corporal Emmanuel Tetteh (left) and Late Lance Corporal Francis Appiah.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe deceased, both members of the Central Regional Police Band, were identified as Lance Corporals Emmanuel Tetteh, 36, and Francis Appiah, 28. I need not tell you how that case ended; it\u2019s just a flashback what happened in the Denu case.<\/p>\n
And often, the bereaved families have no option than to mourn for some time; bury the departed, while the police only pretend they are investigating; and then eventually the cases are consciously forgotten.<\/p>\n
Even in cases where the families of the victims have attempted to pursue justice, they have tried but in vain because clearly, justice is rare to come by in our part of the world when you do not really matter due to your social class.<\/p>\n
While thinking deeply about such injustices continually committed against the weak in our society, I concluded that if for instance the two brothers slain were related to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) or even any of his subordinates, the service would have smoked out the officers and make sure they are jailed.<\/p>\n
But sadly, this is the hypocritical, dishonest and selective society we live in; a country where any public servant in their line of duty commits grievous errors that maim and take human lives, and they walk away chest high.<\/p>\n
Permit me to digress briefly. After a recent earthquake in Taiwan that killed over 50 people, the country has arrested a developer whose 22-year old 17-storey-building killed 39 people.<\/p>\n
I was totally astonished when I read the story because in my mind, this is a natural disaster that humans cannot control.<\/p>\n
When I paused briefly, the first thought that came to mind is the sharp contrast of what pertains in our backyard [Ghana]. A country where people have lost their lives in preventable situations yet those whose negligent actions caused them walk the streets free.<\/p>\n
Until the day we take the bull by the horn as a country to punish without fear or favour by eschewing cronyism and favouritism, people will incessantly be emboldened to act negligently at the expense of precious human lives.<\/p>\n
In my decade-old journalism career, I have heard very few stories of Ghanaian police officers shooting to weaken\u00a0suspected rowdy criminals in order to arrest them. They often shoot-to-kill, and that is against international policing standards and also breaches the fundamental human rights of suspects.<\/p>\n
I think these\u00a0happenings in the service over the years, have exposed huge\u00a0gaps in the kind of assessment done\u00a0on recruits and perhaps the training they are given. The danger is that,\u00a0some hardened criminals including drug addicts, may have infiltrated the service, and that is partly to\u00a0blame for a lot of these lapses. Some of the officers are simply happy to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have come to a rather painful conclusion that,\u00a0the police service in Ghana, is one of the\u00a0most\u00a0unattractive\u00a0places where people genuinely don’t desire to work. If there is any attraction at all for \u00a0a good-sized number, I believe it is the obvious loopholes in the service that clearly allows people to be rapidly rich or extort, and empowered\u00a0to abuse the citizenry. And I use the adjective ‘painful’ because I know there\u00a0are\u00a0exceptional police officers working diligently with integrity for mother Ghana. But sadly, those are few.<\/p>\n
Today, many find themselves in the service not because they desired to work there, but because it is also\u00a0one of the certain\u00a0public jobs to fin d\u00a0once your connections are good. And considering the rising unemployment rate, any job that puts food on the table is manageable for some people.<\/p>\n
Authorities of the Mampong Nursing and Midwifery Training College have given a different account of the shooting to the death of a human anatomy tutor of the school together with his brother by the police.<\/p>\n
The school authorities say the police were unprofessional as they fired more than once at the two. They have thus petitioned the IGP, demanding an independent investigation that will ensure justice for the deceased.<\/p>\n
The Vice Principal of the school,\u00a0Mercy Poku, narrating the incident that led to the killing in front of the College\u2019s administration block said,\u00a0\u201cAround 1:00am, a\u00a0tutor called another tutor to call the police and the police patrol team came around to the bungalow. According to her, the policemen on arrival asked her and the other occupant to go inside the house and lock the gate. The police gave two warning shots at the back of the bungalow. After they had searched the place, they jumped into their car and went away.”<\/p>\n
She narrated further that , “The two security men who were on duty at the school\u2019s administration and witnessed the shooting incident said around 3:00am, they heard multiple gunshots and then they saw the occupants of the motorbike fell and the vehicle stopped. Policemen then came out of the car and one of them made a phone call. After making the call, another police officer walked closer corked the gun and fired the victims that were lying on the floor. They then carried them into the bucket of the vehicle together. After about twenty minutes, the police scene returned to the scene and picked some things from the ground and came back for the third time and left. In the morning, seven bullet shells were picked from the scene and another one found given to the BNI. The multi-billion question is whom did the police call? Why did the police keep firing when the victims were not firing back,\u201d She quizzed.<\/p>\n
The narration of the school authorities even breaks my heart the more. Nonetheless, I wish they don’t even waste their time calling for justice from the police, because that will not come. Maybe they should just have hope in the one true and infallible judge who sits in the heavens and rules in the affairs of men.<\/p>\n
For now, we can only hope that these senseless killings will stop, and the negligent officers\u00a0severely dealt with in case they\u00a0occur again.<\/p>\n
May the souls of Francis Gbeneh and Thaddeus Gbeneh, although painfully and prematurely\u00a0wiped out, rest in peace.
\n–
\nBy: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n
Email: enadadzie@gmail.com
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