The appointment of COP John Kudabor as Acting Inspector General of Police did not come to me as a surprise. For one thing, the appointment was long overdue.
Readers will recall that it was this bully of a policeman, who as Director General of Police Operations sent or led a detachment of anti friendly policemen to brutalise unarmed innocent civilians whose only crime was to embark on a public demonstration against what they regarded as a bloated voters..
On that day, the protestors cursed the day they were born. Not only were they horse whipped with “koboko” they were tear gassed, beaten with truncheons, sprayed with hot water, fired at with rubber bullets, slapped, kicked and trampled upon with their “koti” boots. Some women had their breasts fondled by undisciplined policemen.
Nobody has been to hell and back, but from accounts given by some of the protestors, they had a foretaste of how hell looks like on the day they chose to exercise their civil rights by embarking on lawful demonstration.
And this man had the temerity to tell us to the face that they owed nobody any apology for their excessive use of power on unarmed civilians! Haba! And this is the person the President has deemed fir to occupy the highest position in our police service, Oh sorry, Police Force. I never knew when our Police Service became a Police Force. It was only on the day of the demonstration that I saw with my “kurokuro” eye that the police had transformed itself into a force through the back door.
Ei, Ghanaians must be prepared for the worst, for the Acting Inspector General of Police has a dangerous mind set like the powers that be who appointed him to such a position. We will all die or lose our self respect if this man with such a dangerous mien effectively assumes the position of Inspector General of Police, even if it is in an acting position.
Is this appointment a dress rehearsal of the havoc and violence of that the Police “Force” will unleash on political opponents of the Nefarious Destructive Cancer during the 2016 Election?
When CPO John Kudalor was not the Capo of the Police Force, sorry, Police Service, he looked the other way as his undisciplined men under his command fondled the breast of women the police claimed had been arrested and being marched into police vans. What then will happen now that he is the Acting IGP? Will our daughters, granddaughters, sisters, aunts, cousins and wives be free from sexual harassment at the hands of the men and officers under his command? Are they not going to use their fingers to tantalize the sexual organs of our female folk in the country? If such policemen could fondle the breasts of “arrested” women in public, what is the guarantee that they will not use their “kote boto” of pestle to pound the mortal of our daughters, sisters, granddaughters, aunts, girl friends, wives and even out grandmothers?
What do Ghanaians have to do to avoid this calamity? Do we have to put our womenfolk under lock and key in other to free them from these rapacious bunch of Police men? What we heard and saw on Wednesday, 15th September, 2015 is a pointer to the fact that Ghanaians are in for a raw deal now that CPO John Kudalor has assumed office as IGP, even in an acting capacity. There will be gnashing of teeth and wailing in the land. Yes, unless the Lord intervenes, this will be our portion.
Yes, I sincerely believe that CPO John Kudalor has a dangerous and frightening mindset. Listening to him comment on the excessive use of power by the police on the day of the demonstration has confirmed my fears.
“Countri People”, CPO. John Kudalor displayed a high sense of arrogance, irresponsibility and callousness devoid of human feelings when he led a detachment of policemen and women to ensure tranquility during the peaceful demonstration by an unarmed group of Ghanaians. He either turned his face the other way or secretly told the officers and men under this command to go the way of Rehobeam.
And this Police Officer, this CPO John Kudalor with such a dangerous and frightening mind set like our President has been appointed to take charge of our Police Force, sorry, Service. Ghanaians should go on their knees, morning, afternoon, evening, day and night to pray to the Supreme Being to rescue us from these dangerous set of leaders.
Left to me, CPO John Kudalor is not the kind of person Ghana needs to superintend over its Police Force, sorry, Police Service. But all is not lost yet. If CPO John Kudalor wants to endear himself into the hearts of Ghanaians, he should do the following
1) Initiate move to start investigations into the untimely death of former President Professor John Evans Atta Mills with a view to finding out the cause of death and bring perpetrators to book if investigations reveal our late President did not die an untimely death.
2) Investigate the gruesome murder of an NPP activist who was killed near the Agbogbloshie Police Station in early 2009. The case was reported to the Agbogbloshie Police, but no action has been taken on it.
3) Publish the outcome of the Police own investigation into the use of maximum force during a peaceful demonstration by “Let MY Vote Count Alliance” in September, 2015. Kudalor was the head of Police Detachment Team sent to ensure peace and sanity during the demonstration. The report must contain recommendation against policemen and women who conducted themselves unprofessionally on that day.
4) Publish the outcome of its internal investigation into the recruitment scandal involving a top hierarchy of the Police Force.
5) Publish outcome of investigations into how an alleged culprit (a military man) under custody implicated in the murder of Issa Mobilla was allowed to escape from custody and why the matter was not reported immediately the escape occurred.
6) CPO John Kudalor should render a public apology on the role the Police played on the day of the demonstration and his public utterance and comments on the event. Ghanaians will then have in their heart to forgive him. Highly placed Public Officers hardly do this. But I bet, let him have the boldness to ask Ghanaians for forgiveness and see and hear the amount of good will that will go to him.
Hear my Nigerian friend, Dr Chika Onyeani postulate an axiom. He says that “if you have a madman in the house and he starts shouting ‘fire! fire!” and begins to run away. You had better pay attention because the madman knows that a fire could scorch him as well’.

You might regard Citizen Daniel Danquah Damptey as the mad man in the house, but I stand as the conscience of the nation. When the late President Mills was terminally ill, I wrote two articles titled “The President is sick” and “where is the President?” The powers that be ridiculed me and called me unprintable names. We all saw the repercussions.

The past cannot be changed, but we can work through the Present in order to shape the Future. I stand as a link between the Present and the Future.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (Damptey_daniel@yahoo.com) 0243715297