Editorial: Kufuor Rubbishes "Eric Amoateng Bill"

PRESIDENT JOHN Agyekum Kufuor has virtually condemned a bill currently before Parliament, which if passed would enable Ghanaians in foreign prisons to be repatriated home to serve their sentences in Ghana.

This paper says ‘virtually condemned’ because from the horse’s own mouth, President Kufuor has described as “unfortunate the conditions in the country’s prisons, which are characterised by deterioration with overcrowding becoming a common feature,” emphasizing that “prison facilities built for 100 prisoners now accommodate 500.”

By this pronouncement, he has condemned the bill before it could see the light of day; for if President Kufuor has the nerve to say our prisons are “medieval establishments that could not differentiate between hardened criminals and first-time prisoners, then our Parliamentarians should not waste time if the bill is presented, but throw it overboard.

This paper and some well-meaning Ghanaians have cautioned that the bill is inappropriate, taking into account the present crowded conditions of our prisons and also the perception that the bill is being forced for passage because of one particular Ghanaian currently facing drug-related charges in a foreign land.

The President, who put the stamp of death on the bill when he inaugurated the Prisons Service Council in Accra, has said the truth. Our prisons are overcrowded even to sustain our prisoners and if so, how much more Ghanaian jail birds in foreign lands who are mostly cocaine offenders, desperately after money to flaunt before the poor home-based Ghanaian.

Are these the people we should keep in our overcrowded, cockroach-infested and bed-bugged prisons to be fed from taxes the common clean-handed Ghanaian had sweated to pay for development? Our answer is no!

The President has said it and we at The Chronicle support him. We should allow them to rot in their own juices wherever they are to pay for the crimes they committed.

Ghana is currently a haven for cocaine and other illicit drugs and we should not be seen to be doing anything that could be misinterpreted to mean the government supports drug barons or have sympathy for them.

The bell has been sounded and this paper hopes the majority ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament will see the wisdom behind the words of President Kufuor and act accordingly when the bill is placed before them.

That bill has already generated controversy and we are all waiting to see what our lawmakers will do when the August House reconvenes.

This paper also applauds the President for castigating some prison officers who display the tendency of being in the Service to punish, forgetting that prisoners are human beings with rights who are supposed to be helped to reform and should therefore be dealt with humanely.

This message should also go to the Ghana Police Service, for just two days ago this paper published a story where the Greater Accra Regional Police had detained a suspect in their cell for six and a half days, thereby infringing on the person’s constitutional and fundamental human rights.

We should be our neighbours’ keepers and stop acts that would be detrimental to the country’s development.