Let them stand up to be counted who oppose impunity and acts which threaten the sanctity of the law in our beloved Ghana.
Staying aloof as the likes of Richard Jakpa disregard ongoing legal processes regarding a property in contention because his party is in power and he is in charge of special operations at the Blue Gate should not be an option.
Last week ended with one of those developments which make stomachs churn because of their absurdity and surrealism. Spartan Ives Limited, operators of renowned Polo Beach Club, has filed a legal process to injunct an announced action to demolish their structures, not by a court order but the arbitrariness of the said Richard Jakpa on the request of the Labadi Beach Hotel Limited.
How dare Richard Jakpa who should know better that when a case is pending in court brazen threats contemptuous of the law, ultra vires as they are, should be avoided. In other words, the Special Operations Director has no authority to demolish the property of Spartan Ives Limited in Accra because application for injunction against such action has been filed in court.
Management of national security is not about cowboy waywardness in Rambo-style mode but acting within the confines of the law. It is such actions and threats which give the national security of the country such negative image.
The recent engagement by the National Security Coordinator and his team with the media was intended to address the negative misconception about the security outfit and seek collaborative partnership with the media and other publics. The Coordinator dissociated the National Security Secretariat from acts of lawlessness associated with them over the years. The conduct of Richard Jakpa, a person who went through the drill at the Ghana Military Academy since the swearing in of President John Mahama, has made worrying headlines, one such misconduct standing out. His action at the residence of some high ranking former officials of the previous government was a dirty marker on his image and, by extension, the office he occupies.
Richard Jakpa’s brigand conduct is not helping the cause of effective national security management in the country.
The law and its application bereft of abuse must be applicable to all without fear or favour; this is a factor which separates a civilised society from the animal kingdom and, indeed, failed states.
We can bet that our country, although degenerating morally as a result of the likes of Richard Jakpa, has not failed yet.
In civilised societies where the rule of law persists in the true sense of the expression, nobody has the authority regardless of how much power the President has given them dare disregard the standard practice of waiting for the outcome of a legal application.
Labadi Beach Hotel, in the matter under review, would have done the law some good by not endorsing the lawless predisposition of Richard Jakpa to do what he loves doing best.
The relevance of the internal law enforcement department, the Police, will be undermined or even sidestepped when we embolden the Richard Jakpas to straddle the country’s space with the kind of impunity they are displaying annoyingly.
Clemence Gyato with the assistance of a certain Senior Police Officer have been flagged for acting unlawfully when they demolished structures belonging to the Accra Turf Club recently, and that is the way to go.
Richard Jakpa should not be allowed to tread the path of lawlessness unless we live in a failed state where the rule of law has no significance.