If you are sick of an inveterate disease with seemingly no cure for your ailment, the only option is to confront the ailment with whatever means available. When we were children, whenever you developed a soar which refused to go despite the use of penicillin ointment, our mothers will boil very hot water and massage the place. You can cry your heart out but your mother will never stop until she felt she had done enough. You may think your mother is hardhearted but when you are finally cured, you inwardly thank your mother for applying such hash remedy to cure your inveterate disease. Have you ever drunk liquid quinine before? Those who have drunk one before will tell you how bitter it was. In those days gone by, quinine was used to cure malaria. A cup of bitter quinine will send you sweating like a marathon runner. A few minutes after drinking the quinine you begin to get better.
Ever since Dr. Dampare held the reins of power at the Ghana Police Service, I understand why our mothers used hash remedies to cure inveterate diseases. Social media and cybercrime have suddenly found their way on our shores and things are not safe again. In other jurisdictions, threats of human lives and insulting behavior are crimes punishable by law. Not so in God’s own country. These days people use the social media to insult and threaten people they perceive to be either their political enemies or those who stand on their way. I have had cause to write about proprietors of the Jesus Enterprise who call themselves ’men of God’. I don’t care about the trick they play on their unsuspecting ‘customers’ and the ’anointing oil’ they sell to make their money but I do care about the way they have started disobeying the laws of the land.
Not long ago one of the ‘entrepreneurs’ of Jesus Enterprise who calls himself ’Bishop’ Daniel Obinim and some of his ’shopkeepers’ rushed into the studio of a radio station with crow bars to inflict serious wounds on a presenter. The only offense of the presenter was that he was discussing a story of Obinim, the ’man of God’ who seduced the wife of one of his ’junior entrepreneurs’. Obinim was arrested and arraigned before court but sadly he was acquitted and discharged. We later heard that Obinim paid the presenter huge sum of money to drop the case. Money dey talk!
Our law enforcement agencies sat down and looked the other way while this crook called Okomfo Agradaa duped thousands of unsuspecting Ghanaians with her ‘Sika gari’ trick before they zeroed in on her. She had made good money, built mansions and bought fleet of luxurious cars with fat bank accounts and so when the matter was taken to court, she was set free. The only punishment she received was the closure of her TV station which she registered illegally and which she used to lure her customers. Agradaa now says she is a born again Christian and walking tall and free in this land of our death. Those she duped have nowhere to run to because they know if even they report the case to the police, nothing will be done to help them retrieve their monies. All these happened when the immediate former IGP was in power.
Another Pharaoh has come in Egypt in the person of Dr. Dampare who does not know Joseph so the pendulum has started swinging right. Dr. Dampare, the current IGP is on a warpath and he has the support of all well-meaning Ghanaians. He simply cannot fail us this time around because he has nothing to lose if he holds the bull by the horns with Ghanaians holding his waist. Bishop Owusu Bempa used to ride roughshod in this country, thinking that no son of a bitch could touch him. When he took the law in his own hands and invaded the home of the confident trickster called Okomfo Agradaa, with his machomen, brandishing guns, sticks and stones, he found himself in breach of the law. Dr. Dampare and his men have shown that no one is above the law.
When Bishop Owusu Bempa was arrested and denied bail, there is this fake pastor called Nigel Gaisie who foolishly told Ghanaians that the President betrayed Owusu Bempah and that if he was the one arrested, Mr. Mahama, the former president would have ordered his immediate release. How absurd and stupid! You see, one of the factors which led to the NDC losing the 2016 elections was the order given by then President Mahama for the release of Montie trio. Ghanaians were very angry because they did not see the reason why these Montie ‘wee’ smokers could threaten no mean a person than the Chief Justice of the land and set free through a presidential fiat. Ghanaians bided their time and when the day of reckoning came they paid Mr. Mahama with his own coin. And this fake man of God wants Nana Akufo-Addo, an astute lawyer, to also imprudently order the release of Owusu Bempah and thereafter, bear the brunt of Ghanaians? Never!
Dr. Dampare has started well with the arrest and prosecution of Owusu Bempah. He must not rest on his oars. In fact, there is the need for him to literally resurrect other cases which have been swept under the carpet and deal with culprits to show people that crime has no respect for persons and has no status bar. Dr. Dampare has a Herculean task to accomplish. The youth in particular are taking things for granted and they are out there messing around. The love for quick money has made them mad. Pregnant women, children and even very old men and women are reportedly killed for ritual purposes. Such cases should be dealt with expeditiously. Just look at how long the police has taken to unravel the killing of Hon. J.B Danquah Adu and the other MP of Mfantseman in the Central Region. It is good some suspects have been arrested but for how long should we wait to see the end result?
DCOP Kofi Boakye is popular today in Ghana because of the expeditious manner he handles cases. Dr. Dampare should do same to restore the lost confidence Ghanaians have in the Ghana Police Service. Our prisons are congested simply because of delay in investigation of cases. People are remanded in prison custody because their cases are still pending at the police stations. No wonder the sages say justice delayed is justice denied.
The most onerous task sitting on the office desk of Dr. Dampare is the issue of arm robbery. The more the police kill these miscreants, the more they come in different colors. They used to attack passenger vehicles but now they are targeting bullion vans. Dr. Dampare should impress upon the government to purchase more bullet proof vests for policemen. On the other hand, unless police men come under attack which endangers their lives, they should learn to shoot to demobilize these arm robbers instead of killing them on sight. The reason is that when you kill them, you lose the opportunity to know where they acquired their sophisticated weapons like AK 47 assault rifles. There is the need for the police to up their games in intelligence gatherings. In this modern era, intelligence comes first when it comes to policing. Arm robbers should be napped before they strike. Waiting for them to strike before we chase them is suicidal.
It is an open secret in this country that these weapons which are supposed to be in the hands of security personnel end up in the hands of arm robbers because it is the security men who give them out for hire to the arm robbers. If these sick brains go out for operations and succeed, the booty is shared with these security men. If an arm robber is demobilized, the CID can debrief him in order to find where he got the weapon. The time to act is now and Dr. Dampare must not fail with the full support of Ghanaians. I throw way salute Sir!!!
I don’t hesitate to accept the fact that a man’s best friend is his wife. I lost the key to my drawer where I keep my precious assorted cigars. When I was desperately searching for it, my wife opened her hand bag and gave me a spare key to open the drawer. I was highly relieved and elated. I quickly opened the drawer and grabbed my last stick of Arturo Fuente Opus X PussyCats, Che Guevara’s favorite brand and started doing what I know best. (NB: If your wife is pregnant and kidnaped and you want answers, see Captain Smart, the Pregnancy Consultant, FBI Agent  and Gynecologist Specialist to advise you. Shameless, boisterous empty braggart!!!)
By Eric Bawah