One of the stories in this edition makes disturbing reading. It is about a group of armed men in military fatigues embarking on a midnight operation at Oshieye near Kokrobite, Accra, at the behest of some appointees.
The relevant police formations from the divisional to district commanders in the jurisdiction concerned were not aware about the operation. The story has it that twenty-two persons were arrested and taken to the police headquarters at the end of the operation.
A typical ragtag militia operation in the Congo comes to mind. This is Ghana anyway where such a scenario does not belong. Not under our human rights studded President.
As we compose this commentary, twenty of those arrested have had their freedom restored not however the inconvenience and trauma they endured at the hands of security operatives some of them masked according to the narrations of the victims. Perhaps at the time of their ordeal, they thought they were under attack from armed robbers.
Whatever it was which triggered the operation at that wee time of the night the action was crude and not in tune with civilized practices. We condemn what happened at Oshieye and demand that those behind the crude action are queried.
Such inappropriate conducts have the tendency to create bad blood between the people and government. Fortunately, government did not authorize the operation; some appointees decided to do as they pleased an action consistent with abuse of authority. After all, by their appointments appointees represent the President and take actions which they deem proper on his behalf. Appointees whose actions therefore affect negatively the image of the outstanding image of the President must be stopped in their tracks.
The President won’t certainly be amused with actions which do not conform to the rules of law. What would have happened had the police division in whose jurisdiction the unauthorized operation took place intervened arms et al? What if those who undertook the operation were armed robbers who managed to lay hands on military fatigues?
Our Armed Forces are an important institution of state whose image should be protected from such arbitrariness. We are saddened that somebody can on his own decide to mobilize soldiers and direct them to go and do as they did at Oshieye.
Actions such as the one which occurred at Oshieye are part of the dark chapters of our local history which should not under any circumstance be re-enacted.
Those who seek to protect their ill-gotten lands should find other means of doing so. They should not drag our government’s name into their mess. We are moving forward with an outstanding good governance record and would not brook such arbitrariness. After detaining the so-called suspects for the days that they did, what next? Reprehensible and shameful!