A village gang has subjected a police officer to unspeakable ordeal at Behenase in the Bekwai Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
Tethering an adult to a tree as though he is a goat in a modern setting is not a thing to be countenanced. It does not matter that it took place in a village. That they even sought to sacrifice the blood of D/Sgt David Olanuyi to a local deity in a 2019 Ghana makes us wonder whether those young men are completely out of touch with modern Ghana and perhaps live in a cave.
Fortunately for the cop, the deity declined the blood of the police officer, according to the weird report about the occurrence. We are appalled by the circumstances under which the cop was taken as though he was a prisoner and beaten up. It would be important to know why he went for an arrest without support from other cops in a rustic environment.
In such settings, it is ill-advised to undertake such actions the way the Sergeant did. It is our expectation that an important lesson would have been learnt by this occurrence.
As for the young men, they must be smoked out and given the appropriate charges so they can be arraigned and the relevant punishment prescribed.
Respect for authority has in recent times suffered a disturbing decline and we shudder to think that the trend is continuing.
If such unbecoming attitude occurs in rural settings, it should not be so in urban centres like Accra. Recently, a police officer was assaulted around the Abossey Okai Roundabout by irate persons who were conveying the remains of their beloved one for burial. The cop’s only offence was that in the course of managing a traffic holdup, he had ordered the burial party to wait for a while. He was pounced upon and beaten to pulps.
Sometimes irresponsible persons destroy police stations and property thereof being state assets demands even harsher sanctions from the courts.
For those who do not know and tend to become crude in their reactions attacking police officers is tantamount to attacking the state. Assault in whatever form regardless of the victim’s status is criminal, let alone exacting such criminality on a representative of the state in uniform.
If existing laws are not enough, we ask for a review so something more painful can be adopted so that the phenomenon can be brought to a close or even reduced to the barest minimum.
We expect to be briefed by the Police Administration about developments regarding the arrest of the young men and others implicated in similar assault of police officers in other parts of the country.
When law enforcement agents are unable to undertake their statutory functions because they are overwhelmed by physical attacks then the state itself is under threat.