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Dead Silence

October 23, 2010 by · Comments Off on Dead Silence 

Dead Silence, There is an adage in journalism that if a dog bites a man, not news, but if a man bites a dog, then you qualify to become a cover or front page.

The media generally consider an event more newsworthy if there is something unusual for him. This saying aptly describes the attitude of human rights activists in this country.

Every time armed robbers died after contracting the police to shoot blood, human rights activists raise the issue of the rights of the thieves. But when police officers dead, nobody seems to talk about the incident after a periodic review.

Within one month, three police officers have been killed for exercising their legitimate rights. The first incident occurred in Alar Bar in Kumasi, where a policeman was killed by a group of youths for allegedly shooting a suspected armed robber. Just when the police administration was recovering from that crash, a notorious jail switch in northern Ghana, alias Johnson Kombi “Burger”, was said to have ambushed and shot three police officers a couple of days . Two police officers have died while the third was flown to Accra for treatment. Kombi, who broke jail in the prisons of Tamale, in January, is said to have threatened to deal with the police and true to his word, Bunkpurugu police, who seem to be an obstacle to the nefarious activities became the unfortunate victim.

But the silence of death by human rights activists in these murders makes one to the inevitable question: what police personnel have human rights? You do not expect that such human rights advocates to encourage the police to fire on any suspected criminal in sight, but the deal on condition that police work should not escape the attention of any human rights defender.

Anyone who knows Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District, where the switch is reported to recruit youth prison for terrorizing merchants and other travelers in that part of the country concluded that the condition that the police is not equivalent to a punishment and not a service to the nation. Bunkpurugu is one of the hotspots in the Northern Region, where some 3,500 refugees fled to alleged Togo, in April this year. It takes about four or more hours to travel from Tamale to the district, while the deplorable road network reinforcement makes it almost impossible during the crisis.

The headquarters of the district police has no computer and officers have to rely on their own laptops to standard reports and other important documents. No telephone installation, including the police headquarters and district police officers use their personal cell phones for all official communications without refund.

There is only one vehicle available in the volatile district. The police therefore have to rely on private jet for their patrols. Nakpanduri police used an improvised structure as a police station and so uncertain is the location that an AK-47 rifle was stolen from the station three years ago.

All these and other police officers exposed to the risk indescribable.

But the evils of the police are not limited to those in that part of the country. And now that the armed robbers seem to have declared war, the question is how the police respond? With the current wave of uncertainty, mainly due to armed robbery, everyone is a potential target.

Hardly a day goes by without a story about a horrible murder in one region or another. This requires revising the law on capital punishment. It is a type of action that invokes the wrath of human rights activists and their owners pay, armed robbery, but not be allowed to take over the nation.

It is said that a cripple does not start a war song, but armed robbery and other criminals now think it is better to die in a shootout to give in, so be it.

Ghana should not, in the name of democracy, as liberal on criminals and allow the safety of the citizens to get out of hand.

After all, the frog likes water, but not when it is boiling.

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