Editorial: Stop The Diversion, Find The Killers

Ever since the NDC flagbearer, Professor John Evans Atta Mills made his rather insightful statement on the recent unexplained and yet unsolved brutal and cold-blooded killings that have rocked parts of the country, we have noticed that a very deliberate effort is being made to divert attention of the public mind away from the very salient issues that he raised in his statement.

This deliberate effort at diverting the public mind from the issues that the good Professor raised has taken the form of deliberately focusing the public mind on whether or not these killings were contract killings while deliberately misinforming the good people of this country it is because Prof. Mills has conclusively categorised these killings as "contract killings" that is why the debate has focused on whether or not these were contract killings.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Nowhere in the release that Prof. Mills gave the media did he categorised the killings as "contract killings".

What Prof. Mills stated, and which he has repeated umpteen times, was "the recent slaying of Mr. Rokko Frimpong, Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Commercial Bank, has undoubtedly accentuated the belief that we are now in an era where people are engaging the services of Contract Killers, to either settle scores or for the pursuit of their very selfish interests" (emphasis our).

How anyone could read the above statement as a conclusive categorisation of the killings as "contract killing" could only be explained by realising that those engaged in that kind of disingenuous misrepresentation would rather that the good Professor had not spoken out on the matter so that they could continue to pretend to the general public that all was well.

Indeed, barely days after Prof. Mills released his statement on this matter to the press and called for heightened security so as to restore hope and confidence of the Ghanaian people, a retired public servant was cold-bloodedly executed in his house in circumstances that were not unlike the circumstances under which Mr. Rokko Frimpong was executed, bearing ample testimony to the fact that Prof. Mills’ statement was most timely and well-thought out.

In fact, there is a school of thought that holds the view that if the NPP, both as a political party and as a government, had not been focused on diverting attention from the issues raised by the good Professor, but had concentrated on implementing his advise for heightened security measures, perhaps, just perhaps, the murdered retired public servant, Mr. Kotei, would not have met his death in the manner that he was slain.

Another issue raised by those seeking to divert attention from the issues raised by Prof. Mills dwell on is the fact that he stated in his release that "Ghana is no longer the safe country and investment destination that it used to be…", which statement some of them try to get the public to believe that the Professor was playing partisan politics with the matter.

While we unreservedly respect the right of others to hold differing opinions on any matter, including whether of not Ghana is still the safe and investment destination that it has always been for the last fifteen years and beyond, we nonetheless are hard put to understand the logic behind the thinking that Prof. Mills was playing partisan politics with the killing of people merely by stating that "Ghana is no longer the safe and investment destination that it used to be…"

Did the Professor at any point suggest that he meant that Ghana is no longer safe because it is the NPP that is in power? Did he at any point suggest that if the NDC were to be in power these killings would not have taken place? Did he at any point suggest that the NPP has proven incompetent in handling matters concerning security of the citizens of the land while overly concentrating on the security of the government?

No. the Professor never made any such suggestion.

Indeed, those of us on the Weekly Standard believe that Prof. Mills deliberately use the phrase "Ghana is no longer…" so as to avoid unnecessary politicisation of the issues while drumming home the fact.

This is because the period preceding the time Ghana became "no longer safe" could be just prior to the advent of the killings, couldn’t it? And, it is the NPP that has been in power in the last six to seven years, including the period preceding the advent of the killings, isn’t it?

So why would anyone deliberately read that statement to mean that Prof. Mills was playing partisan politics with the killing of innocent Ghanaians?

Obviously, this was just another totally hogwash of an argument that is being used to focus the public mind away from the salient issues.

The issues are the fact that our dear country has become a key hub and major transit point for the illicit drug trade or not, as a result of which the sheer magnitude of ill-gotten wealth that the drug trade makes available to the barons, allows them to use money to buy almost anything – including buying the services of hit men, while the drug itself serves to destroy our youngmen and women, leaving them as easy preys for the drug barons.

Our concern, as a nation, should be on how to fight the drug menace and bring it under control, if not totally eradicate it.

We therefore call on the good people of this country to speak out and get the government to act to protect the nation and its people from the dangers that these drug barons pose to our society.