I pray that Zaa radio listeners will forgive me for revisiting this very disturbing issue time and time again, that is the rampant deadly attacks on our police officers. My heart is in this for personal reasons.
Though I have never served in the security services, as either a police officer or a soldier, I have long and extensive connections to the Ghana army and police service through my family.
My late grandfather, long before he settled permanently in Yendi in the early 60s, was a Gold Coast Police sergeant, while my deceased father served in the Ghana army, and so did a host of now dead relatives who migrated from neighboring Togo to the then Gold Coast. Let it be said that they served Ghana well and were accordingly rewarded with decent pensions.
I recollect with nostalgia the tales they told me about their days as servicemen and how they commanded absolute respect from their civilian counterparts. One thing they did not mention were attacks on them coordinated by thugs and criminals because they never happened.
Unfortunately, today’s members of the armed security agencies don’t command the same kind of respect my grandfather, father and relatives did nearly half a century ago.
The animosity towards our men and women in uniform is unprecedented and unfathomable. I bet Ghanaian social scientists are hard at work trying to discern what is driving criminals to mount unprovoked attacks on our uniformed police officers.
But, I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that the hatred stems largely from a fundamental break down in law and order which has resulted in complete disdain for the men and women who have taken a solemn oath to serve and protect us.
Last week’s vicious mrder of a police Inspector Emmanuel Ashilevi on the premises of Kwabenya district police precinct, was the latest in a series of violent attacks on our police officers.
It was, by all accounts, a clear and brutal demonstration of how deviant and brazen Ghanaian criminals have become. The criminals who murdered Inspector Ashilevi in cold blood did not stop there; they went on to spring their colleagues from jail. What audacity ! It just breaks my heart.
Let us be blunt here and not mince words; and what I am saying should not be construed as a blanket indictment of the Ghanaian society. But the reality staring every Ghanaian in the face is that police officers are being gunned down all too frequently.
By that measure, I can say without any inhibitions that there is something profoundly wrong with a society where criminals roam free and find it expedient to shoot and kill police officers. Killing police officers is outrageous, illegal and a threat to the social fabric, not to mention a sad commentary on the ruling political class.
One group of citizens who should be the target of biting criticism is our elected representatives. Politicians have let us down with their ineptitude and abject failure to find reasonable solutions to the rising tide of violence and criminality and should thus be held responsible for the high levels of crime and violence we are witnessing almost on a daily basis.
They have been asleep as Ghana burns and continues its perilous descent into chaos. Their nonchalant attitude has emboldened criminals and other societal misfits to traverse the length and breadth of the country, terrorizing and killing Ghanaians.
The onus is now on authorities to be proactive, decisive and determined. Now is the time for our politicians to stand firmly and unequivocally behind our police force and give the men and women in uniform every resource they need to combat these hardened criminals.
The time has come for our political leaders to jettison the platitudes and take the fight directly to the lords of the underground as this is the only way to tell the wretched hooligans and lawbreakers that their acts of defiance and terror will be met with overwhelming force and long prison sentences.
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