When it hurts
Press on. Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today — Robert H. Schuller.
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Those who could recollect may be reminded of the directive of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings for the re-arrest of a driver whose vehicle killed a pedestrian around the Bus Stop area in Accra and was fined by a court. That generated its own heat.
The Minister for Gender and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, was reported to have indicated her indignation about a court decision of imposing a fine, rather than custodial sentence on a convict for defilement, since as far as she was aware, there was no option of a fine for defilement convictions.
While these actions impact on our jurisprudence, my primary interest and concern is the persistent outcry by the police from time-to-time over certain decisions of the courts.
Sometimes, the police are right in expressing their frustrations when after painstaking efforts in tracking down criminal suspects, some with known records of convictions, such suspects are granted bail by the courts; giving credence to the pessimism some hold that the law is an ass.
The only thing that some curious individuals ask is whether such open expression of hopelessness are informed by advice from the Legal Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, and equally whether the police appreciate the same that members of the public who are mistreated by some unscrupulous police personnel deserve a hearing.
Many times, the police have expressed disquiet and discomfort about armed robbers who are granted bail by the courts without any attempt to look at their backgrounds. Sometimes, the public sympathises with the police and more so because the courts, by the nature of their duties, cannot explain to the public the justification for such seeming acts of unpatriotism”.
My writing is underpinned by the recent murmuring from the police about the granting of bail to suspects who kidnapped children at churches in Accra. One may not know the basis of the bail, but it could well be that the offence is bailable, in which case, the defect is with the law, not the courts.
But another angle to the issue is that, in November, last year, a grandson of my brother was kidnapped in Kumasi. It took some effort before the police station handling the matter reluctantly released the story to the Daily Graphic with the explanation that the publication could incite others to engage in the dastardly act.
We countered by stating that the publication could alert the public to guard and guide against the incidence. So when I returned from a training programme abroad and read the stories about the breakthrough of the police in nabbing some suspects involved in the kidnapping of some children in Accra, my mind went back to Kumasi, only to be told that the suspects had been granted bail.
Perhaps because it happened outside Accra, the Police Command might not have been seized by developments as to be fully committed to the prosecution of the suspects, as it happened in Accra.
The point is, however, that do the police sympathise with individuals who do not get their support and cooperation, the same way that they want the public to support them against “bad” court decisions?
That is at the centre of the pain of Dr Martin Luther King when he submits that, “I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law; but I have longed to hear white ministers say follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother. In the midst of the blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevances and sanctimonious trivialities”.
The outcry of the police on some of these bails may not be irrelevant or trivial, but it requires the same sense of demand for justice to be applied to the police in dealing with the frustrations of the public.
It is equally important that we treat all incidents from any part of the country with the same seriousness and commitment; because as our constitution provides, no Ghanaian is more important than the other. Therefore, whether something happens in Accra or Bunkprugu-Yunyoo, we have to deal with that as steadfast, even if in terms of time, it takes longer in handling the one from the remote areas, as we do for those which happen in Accra.
But, returning to the times that some police commanders and units have had to express their frustrations with the judicial system, there is the need for better collaboration between the Police Legal Directorate and the Attorney-General’s Department. After all, the ultimate responsibility for the prosecution of criminals rests with the Attorney-General under whose fiat the police are authorised to prosecute, but the police bear the brunt of the public when verdicts make the law appear like an ass.
I definitely have a vested interest in the kidnapping incident in Kumasi; for as long as the grandchild remained in captivity, I could not sleep in Accra until the small boy was rescued and the kidnappers sent to the police for the necessary action.
The point I am making is that, we all, including the media, seem to be more interested in news about Accra than any other place because numbers count in news.
That was the case in the period 1996-2001, when in the election challenge against Mrs Rebecca Adotey from Ayawaso-Wuogon preoccupied all the attention, when a similar case went on about the Ajumako Constituency where Dr Enos, was equally deprived of his electoral victory the same way that Isaac Amoo suffered.
We must be concerned; not only when it hurts us directly but owe a duty of care to all Ghanaians no matter the nature of the proximity involved.