Ghana Police Service
Some security personnel, especially in the Police, have become so partisan in the discharge of their duties that they pose danger to both the forthcoming polls and governance in general.
When Police officers detach themselves from partisan politics and perform their duties bereft of open attachment to any political grouping, the lost confidence they have suffered of late would be restored. But can they when such personnel prefer dancing to the tune of politicians at the helm?
Fortunately these persons have been identified by the people of Ghana through their unprofessional approach to policing and their unguarded utterances.
One such superior officer, Chief Superintendent Hamza Yakubu of the Formed Police Unit (FPU), has still not thought it wise to apply some finesse in the work that he is doing on contract.
We would have rather names are left out of such commentaries but really when matters get to a head as in the Ghanaian context we have no option but to go this way. Brusqueness is what Ghana needs today especially on issues bordering on the survivability of the country.
Currently the flawed law enforcement system we have is one of the challenges we need to address.
Last week or so the aforementioned superior officer who is doing all he can to please the NDC government for showing him a rare magnanimity of extending his contract did the unthinkable: he fired a stinker to a politician. He told Hon Kennedy Agyepong, the Assin Central MP that he does not deserve to be addressed Honourable.
It was captured by the media because it is unusual for a police officer to be in the political frontline exchanging, as it were, vitriolic with others as if he too is part of the contentious equation.
This is not the first time that Hamza has conducted himself in a manner that is unprofessional.
When ‘protocol-recruited’ cops take a cue from Hamza and start conducting themselves with the mindset of serial callers and foot-soldiers then we have a problem in our hands which is what the situation is anyway.
It would be interesting to listen to the orders such commanders would give their men before they embark on patrols on Election Day. There is no doubt that such orders would be inclined towards unprofessionalism.
Recently, Daily Guide carried a story about how an NCO in the police who hails from the President’s hometown and attached to the Flagstaff House exhibited his party colours in social media.
We were told that the IGP was going to take action against the said cop. We did not believe disciplinary action was going to be taken against him anyway given the dispensation in which we are today. We have not regretted our suspicion because the guy has not been queried.
Like we have stated before there are professional superior police officers who would not brook such nonsense as being exhibited by the likes of Hamza Yakubu who would rather serve the interests of a political party than the state. Such good officers have been pushed to the backburners to rot.
Governments have come and gone as have police administrations. The BA Yakubus and those before them such as the Madjiteys are now part of the history of law enforcement in the country. Those at the helm today would sooner than later join their forebears in the history of the Police.
While some have been remembered with nostalgia others are associated so much professional scum that their place is the shamed segment of the chronicles of law enforcement. How pitiful!