Arrest and prosecute the perpetrators for once – Kweku Baako reacts to Banda killing

A distraught veteran journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has lamented the high prevalence of violent activities at centres during the EC’s voters registration exercise.

Tracing the violent related activities as far back as 1996, Mr Baako observed that poor commitment of the two main political parties and the police was to be blamed for the occurrences, year in and year out.

“Both sides are involved in that... my question is what has been the history of enforcement.

What happened to charges and trials? Because we treat it as a political thing, it has theirs…, don’t enforce, don’t go too extreme. You arrest them, you bail them… no prosecution, no conviction, no sentence, we’ve sown the seeds of impunity, that culture of impunity.

And in this case, I’m not excluding any of them,” he exclaimed on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.

The veteran journalist was reacting to reports of a death of a 28-year-old man who was killed after a scuffle at a registration centre at Banda in the Bono Region during the week.

According to reports the scuffle was sparked after some persons associated with the NPP parliamentary candidate for the constituency confronted brother of the MP for the area, Ahmed Ibrahim, over reasons not yet known.

The MP for the area, Ahmed Ibrahim earlier accused the Police and the Military dispatched of taking sides in the chaos that has engulfed the constituency since the voter registration exercise began.

In an interview with Accra based Starr FM on Wednesday, July 15, the lawmaker intimated that personnel of the security agencies show open bias and protect the governing party members even when they attack opponents.

“Those who attacked me personally days ago are still walking around, they are well known NPP people, I have given their names to the police but up till now, nothing has happened. And the Police know, many of the residents here have lost confidence in the military and the police because even though they are to protect us, they are only protecting the NPP candidate and his team,” he told Sit-in host Lantam Papanko.

Adding his voice to the development, Kweku Baako said: “We must ask the police. In all this registration, military and police personnel are deployed to flashpoints. Already intelligence knows which areas are flashpoints, and we deploy police and military personnel there. They arrest sometimes but they let them go after a while. No price, nothing! Why won’t we continue to have such incidents.”

“Now we are talking of a young man who is supposed to have been killed, murdered. I appeal to the Ghana Police, please, it isn’t as if it’s the beginning, this might not be the last too. So please can they investigate this particular incident. Arrest, apprehend the perpetrators and for once prosecute, it’s important.”