Alfred Ababio Kumi
Last week ended on a disturbing note: operatives of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) saw action in two separate locations.
The foregone were not isolated incidents, similar actions having been recorded in the early days of the handover to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.
They were at the residence of the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and another opposition party loyalist, Alfred Ababio Kumi, aka Adenta Kumi, in Accra.
In both operations, the mission was to capture the two personalities and move them to the headquarters of the security agency in Accra.
While they were successful with moving Adenta Kumi, they failed in the Ashanti Regional NPP chairman’s case.
Party faithful, among others, had amassed at the residence and as word had it, an order had come from above that the mission be called off. It is only a matter of conjecture what could have happened had the operatives pushed on to achieve the objective of their mission.
We have observed the varied interpretations given to the occurrences, pro-establishment persons seeing nothing anomalous with the incidents.
Political observers and opposition elements, on the other hand, find the incidents injurious to the cause of democracy.
Be it as it may, the incidents cast a shadow over our democracy, and this is our standpoint.
We think that if there is any reason a citizen or a resident of this country is wanted to assist in any form of investigations by the security agencies, the laid-down and time-tested template should be used. Invite such persons through phone or other channels: these are decent and civilised.
The Rambo style is not only outmoded and unnecessary, it evokes memories of the dark days of the country’s history.
We have learnt rather painfully that the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP is already scheduled to meet the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Accra, a date both parties have agreed upon.
That operatives of the National Intelligence Bureau nonetheless stormed the residence of the businessman/politician was mind-boggling, especially when the CID were not aware of the former’s operations.
Security agencies whose assignments cross paths with each other should find a better way of addressing same.
Under the circumstances, we can, as are others, conclude that there is a deliberate attempt at embarrassing selected politicians.
Such retrogression in our democratic journey should not be countenanced in this country so many years after the last blood-letting military junta.
Nobody is above the law in this country for sure. This we believe in, and wish to add however that when procedures are ignored in place of such arm-flexing from the corridors of power, we are tempted to think that government is misusing the state security agencies.
This is a country with a worrying entry in its recent political history: business empires were destroyed by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), the forebears of the NDC. When such displays play out, we can only pray that we are not being reset to the dastardly days of our history.
As if by design while the NIB operatives stood guard at the residence of Chairman Wontumi, another NPP activist, Adenta Kumi was also being hounded out of his residence for a journey to the NIB cells.
Although he was later released on bail, it was an entry which unfortunately adds to the mounting incidents of government abuse of state power.
He had petitioned the President over what in his estimation was an aberration which cast a slur on the integrity of the ongoing probe into the suspended Chief Justice.
Has whistleblowing become an offence in the country?