The Herald Ghana: Where are the three helicopters Akufo-Addo promised Ghana Police?

Insecurity is one of, if not the most glaring and much talked about issue in Ghana today, following the shooting to death of the Member of Parliament (MP) of Mfantseman, Ekow Quansah Hayford.

The incident has once again brought to the fore the inadequate police numbers and the apparent lack of resource for the service to undertake effective policing.

On Friday, March 22, 2019, president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, speaking at the end-of-year West African Security Services Association (WASSA) of the Ghana Police Service at the Police Headquarters in Accra, said his government is purchasing three helicopters, to help facilitate police operations in the country.

According to him, "the purchase of the three helicopters will help the police to maintain law and order in the country".

Again in February this year, delivering the 2020 State of the Nation Address (SoNA) to Parliament, the president was captured as saying,: "The police have been provided with more vehicles and equipment than they have ever had, including over six hundred (600) vehicles and three (3) incoming helicopters. There are now more opportunities for police officers to undergo training on the job to make them better prepared for work in our communities and keep us safe."

More than seven months after a promise which was made last year was reiterated, Ghanaians are yet to see the helicopters and what use they have been put to, to save lives from being wasted senselessly.The problem with this country called Ghana is that we attach near nonexistent sacredness and importance to human lives.

This newspaper is of the view that, life is sacred and when it is taken unnaturally, as it happened in the case of Ekow Quansah Hayford, measures must be put in place, to first of apprehend the perpetrators, secondly, to find out why and also to forestall a repeat, as the orgy of senseless killings is becoming one too many.