The news story about a gang of soldiers descending upon the Suame Police Station in Kumasi because a man from the colours had been arrested is not the first time such an aberration is taking place in this country.
Tamale recorded a similar incident a few years ago; that too was not the first time and always involves young soldiers from the ranks. It was so serious then that the commander of the garrison and his police counterpart brainstormed over the anomaly.
Such incidents do not speak well about the state of discipline in the colours.
Of course, upon seeing the identification card of the soldier who was alleged to have been involved in a breach of the law, the police too should have immediately contacted the Military Police which is the standard practice or the Commanding Officer of the defaulter’s unit.
We do not know however, whether the police were on the verge of doing so when the lone soldier called for ‘reinforcement’ from his unit.
It smacks of indiscipline when a lone Other Rank can simply call his colleagues from barracks arms et al to come and do as they did on the day in question.
Does it mean that access to weapons from the armoury is that simple for soldiers to do? We can bet that no CO would authorize such movement of arms from the armoury let alone asking soldiers to go and do what we are told happened at Suame.
Soldiers belonging to an Armed Force such as ours are subject to laid-down procedures and routines. These constitute the codes of discipline upon which armed forces operate in any civilized society. It also constitutes the variation between a disciplined body of soldiers and ragtag rebels or bandits in a failed state.
Even in war situations soldiers take orders through a chain of command. Rules of engagement are set out clearly hence the application of fire control orders and other systems put in place to ensure discipline.
Soldiers should be the last set of Ghanaians to display this level of indiscipline such as witnessed in Suame a few days ago. Shameful and abominable!
The Ghana Police Service is constitutionally mandated to enforce the law in the country. It is binding upon both soldiers and police officers to abide by the laws of this country.
Soldiers are in a peculiar situation because they fall under two laws, civil and military.
Soldiers who find themselves outside barracks must know that they are subject to civil law which derives its authority from the constitution, the Magna Carta as it were.
If any soldier can simply call upon his or her colleagues to come to town to do as we have learnt about the Suame incident they would have usurped the authority of the CO of their units. We do not want a situation where the change of command in the military especially is disturbed because the military constitutes a special department of state.
The memory of what happened in Wa is still fresh and we get apprehensive when such stories make it to the media.
The message being sent to recruits under training is that soldiers are untouchable and so when they breach the law no police officer can arrest them. That is certainly not the case.
Once upon a time a senior NCO had an illicit affair with his daughter. That was a breach of civil law and so the said defaulter was handed over to the civil police for investigation and prosecution.
Perhaps the training manuals of recruits of both the police and soldiers should be reviewed with a view to having them understand their authority and restrictions in matters of civil and military law.
As has always been the case, the top hierarchy of the military and the police in the location where the aberration took place met behind closed doors to manage the situation.
Whatever was discussed putting the soldiers who went on rampage as it were on orders is necessary. They should show cause why they should not be sanctioned knowing well that their action was in contravention with the tenets of military law.
The Police too should be considerate when enforcing the law especially when the issue at stake is not about life and death.