In every Ghanaian household or occupational setting, there may be at least one person who has had a not-too pleasant experience with the Ghana Police Service, or looks at our friends in black uniform and camouflage boots with some suspicion.
If you have ever been in the bad books of the police, or even in their good books for the wrong reasons, you are quick to treat with great disdain the uncatchy dictum of the Ghana Police Service: “Police is your friend.” How unfriendly!
A friend Like Ghana Police
For a few of us, however, we have real and genuine friends in the Ghana Police Service, who are doing some extraordinary work in different capacities, to shore up the image of the service.
I was not particularly excited when my best friend and study partner at university, Cudjoe, joined the service.
We called him the Don of Northumberland because of his masterful appreciation of Elizabethan literature, me being the Duke of Canterbury while the tallest in the study group, Jehoshaphat, was the Baron of York.
The only lady who joined our group, the Duchess of Warwick, (Afia Abebrese) deserted us to find a proper university boyfriend.
As students of English who studied Shakespeare like our Bible, we compensated for our intellectual curiosity and poverty of social capital, by rewarding ourselves with titles of royal British nobility. We hoped that Cudjoe, a very intelligent mind who showed rare scholarship and organic verve for higher academic exploits, had gone to Oxford for a PhD in English Literature, where he would encounter the spirit of his beloved Shakespeare.
Instead, he joined the Ghana Police Service.
In those days, the Ghana Police Service pretended to complete our thoughts and suspicions about what we expected them to do when somebody flouted a minor traffic regulation.
It was normal to see them stretch forth their right hand to check our driver’s licence, while their left hand received compensation from our pockets.
When the police invited a suspect to talk ‘something’ upon arrest, we were expected to talk with our wallets, instead of our vocal cords.
And when they asked you to follow them to the station, we understood it to mean there would be no offence recorded if you were wise enough to ‘settle’ before the journey started.
The refrain “Police is your friend” became an oxymoron on steroids.
Sharp intelligence, sharper results
That was then. Suddenly, the Ghana Police Service seems to have found a fortune talisman who has programmed a climate of grace and professionalism over their uniforms.
Perhaps, the present refreshing positive image of the police did not happen all of a sudden.
From IGP Asante Apietu’s tactical policing and masterclass forensic investigation discipline, to Dampare’s policy of intentional visibility where the uniform was always in our sights, to now IGP Christian Tettey Yohonu’s phenomenal speed to ‘cracking’ every crime before day break, we struggle to find good reasons to disrespect the Ghana Police Service or doubt their integrity.
Even our die-in-the-wool doubters are suddenly asking: “Is that really Ghana Police?”
The day the body of Innocentia Atsufui Avinu, a level 200 University of Cape Coast student, was washed ashore at the Hutchland Beach in Cape Coast, I adjusted my clocks, to check how long it will take the police to crack this one.
The same day, a young man was stabbed in the same city I live here in Ontario.
From my living room, I started a silly game, counting by the millisecond whether Canadian Police, with their superior intelligence, would crack theirs before Ghana Police did.
Before I pronounced a winner in my silly game, social media was awash with photos of suspect Michael Mensah nabbed in connection with Innocentia’s death.
That was just as quick as the speed with which the police arrested the armed gang that murdered Mr Amankwaa, Sammy Gyamfi’s father-in-law.
We are aware of recent cases that have been cracked with professional dispatch, including the assasination of the Queenmother of Abamba in Atebubu, and the Indian national whose killers were snappily nabbed in Kumasi.
We lauded the fantastic example of junior police officers who rejected GH¢100,000 when they arrested suspects transporting drugs.
To all the outstanding officers, we say Mazal Tov, Hebrew for ‘congratulations’!
No bribes, not anymore
They have cracked these cases in an environment where there are no street or neighbourhood cameras.
Quietly, but most certainly, the service is polishing up their image by investing in the professional development of their personnel, to live up to their motto: service with integrity. I am a witness. On my recent visit to Ghana, I was accosted by the police at a busy Abelemkpe intersection, for not observing motor traffic regulations.
I was confident I had not broken any rule for driving along with other motorists when the traffic lights were not working because they were faulty.
The young police corporal reminded me that the rule was to stop at every traffic intersection, and observe surroundings before driving.
I played another silly game, by tempting him with money. He retorted: “No Sir, not anymore.”
Like the nephew who has just been accused of sleeping with his uncle’s wife, the police service need not wriggle their waist when they walk.
IGP Yohonu’s refreshing forensic breakthroughs are not obvious to the relatives of suspects who have allegedly been beaten to death by the police while in custody, or Judith Yaa Kumah, whose ears were chopped off by Supt.
Suputor, during interrogation. Our whatsapp videos continually remind us about five police officers caught taking bribes at a galamsey site.
Perhaps, when our elders say a stubborn stomach would always resist the efficacy of a herbal concoction, they had Ghana Police in mind.
By KWESI TAWIAH-BENJAMIN
Tissues Of The Issues
bigfrontiers@gmail.com
Ottawa, Canada
