Opinions of Monday, 5 October 2015

Columnist: Sarpong, G. K.

A Police Service that serves a political party

Opinion Opinion

In a world where democracy has dealt a dirty as well as heavy blow to oppression born out of the wanton desires of a selected few to impose their self-imposed and sometimes incredulous ideologies on the innocent but unsuspecting masses, anything akin to the heinous incidents which blew in the faces of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers against their wills, should not find its way into our modern era.

It saddens my fragile heart to not only hear stories but also witness our police personnel overstretching themselves to go to great lengths to scuttle an otherwise harmless procession of a group of Ghanaians whose sole reason is to deliver a simple message to the Charlotte Osei led-Electoral Commission to scrap the existing voters register for a new but credible one, only for the police to wreak a havoc so foreign to the political history of this country on these innocent citizens of Ghana.

It is more than disheartening that our insatiable, yet, brute police force would not devote their energies on fighting the real enemies for which reason they have been employed, but tend to exert their strengths on innocent Ghanaians. Instead of being the keepers of peace, our eccentric police officers rather find solace in oppressing the downtrodden.

Zeroing down on the events which led to the police securing an injunction over the planned Let My Vote Count demonstration, one is left with a sour taste in the mouth as to what informed the court to see eye to eye with them, and subsequently granting the reliefs being sought.

I find it more than strange that the judge condescended to this absurd level of swallowing the flimsy reasons adduced to support the need for an injunction hook, line and sinker. One wonders what a crime that happened in far away Ho could impact adversely on the operations of the personnel stationed in Accra.

I also find it weird that it never dawned on our police officers that hardened criminals were planning to plague parts of this country until the organizers of the demo had successfully quashed the injunction the police placed before the law court.

I am left with no shred of doubt that this melodrama being pioneered by the IGP and his henchmen is of political colourization. It is a great attempt to gag free expression, an avenue to dwarf the salient suggestions and arguments being advanced by the demonstrators to the island of insignificance, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that John Mahama is retained as Ghana's leader beyond elections 2016.

It is worthy to note that most of these officers have gone beyond the ages required of them to be at the helm of affairs, but for obvious reasons, these people have been contracted to perform certain duties hidden from our eyes. In effect, those in charge of the police service are serving their master, Mahama, not Ghana, hence, these antics.

Their reasons for seeking the injunction are frivolous and unmeritorious. It beats my wildest imagination why such a relief was granted by the presiding judge.

Only a goat-induced custodian of the law would grant this whimsical and capricious relief.

Sources Radio