All along I have always thought of the Ghanaian police as an incompetent, powerless and a bark for nothing institution.
My thoughts where informed by the daily criticism the police service receive from the Ghanaian public. They are bribe receivers, politically bias, unprofessional among others are the kind of accusations levelled against them.
But my narrow thoughts have since ended when I came face to face with them on an issue of assault against another citizen (a woman). Ghana Ghana
My story begins when on one bad day (a day before my brother’s birthday) my brother engaged himself in a quarrel with a tenant (a woman) who had paid to stay in my father’s house. The quarrel arose due to the common compound house problems every compound house experiences.
He (my brother) due to bad temper threatened to beat this woman. Although he did not succeed in touching her, she reported the case to the district police and wrote down at the police station that she had been beaten badly and had sort medical attention.
This is the straw that broke the camels back. The police hastily went to arrest my brother from the house and sent him to the station. As a concerned sibling I went to the station together with another brother to try any possible means to see to his release.
Unfortunately, our first thoughts that it was going to be easy to see to the release of our brother were crashed and we had to call for reinforcement. We had to call in two uncles of ours to assist.
Fortunately, one of our uncles had the financial standing and negotiating skills to bail out our ‘arrested’ brother. Though he (my uncle) paid the police ‘something’ for whatever reason I do not know it was not until all due processes were followed and we wrote down our witness statements that my brother was released. Even when he was released, the case was prepared to be sent to a court. I never believed the case will go to this extent after paying ‘something’.
It took the intervention of the woman to remove the case from the police grips and to prevent it from moving further to the court.
I want to hereby applaud the police for vindicating themselves and then take the opportunity to make some suggestions and also ask a question.
My question is why the accuser is seen as the law-loving one even when the person may be the originator of these problems? I need answers.
My first suggestion is that the police should make all legal options available to the accused. For instance, the accused can be told he/she could report to the police station at a later time and not necessarily follow or dragged to the police station.
My second suggestion is that the accuser should be made to prove reasonably before he/she is seen as the law-abiding citizen.
The Ghanaian police indeed are doing their job and because they form a human institution ‘negative actions’ are expected but this should not be used to tarnish their hard won international reputation.
