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| Ghana Police Service. Photo Source: Culled from the internet |
Just when I had ordered
my banku at an eatery somewhat opposite the Afrikiko Restaurant in Accra, I had
a call from the office. It was my colleague, Silvia Akorfa [Miss AK], calling
with 3FM’s landline.
“Hey, Solomon where are
you?” she asked.
Before I could tell her
I was outside the premises of 3FM/TV3
for lunch, she pulled the breaks on me forcing me to swallow my words.
“Someone by name
Patrick just called in from Liberia Camp enclave near Kasoa. He says some
suspected armed robbers have shot dead a police officer and injured another,” continued
Ms AK.
I quickly scripted a
lead [the story] on my phone and dropped it on the newsroom’s WhatsApp page
with the eyewitness’ contact attached. My Managing News Editor at Media General
– Matilda Haynes – had a private chat with me.
“Please, try and get to
the office. This is journalism,” she replied when I told her I was about eating.
As the order came, I quickly dashed to 3FM’s
studios to break the news. That was how I was immediately affected by the
painful death of the police officer whom we later got to know went by the name Sergeant
Michael Dzamesi.
Sgt. Dzamesi did not
receive the fire alone. His colleague officer was involved, too. Lance Corporal
Mohammed Awal, in a widely circulated social media video, had tried rushing for
medical attention after being hit by the bullets. Apparently, confused
bystanders had assisted him mount the back seat of a motorbike. He is seen
slapping the hand of the rider to speed up; he was dying slowly of the bullet wounds!
As the motorbike sped
off, voices are heard [according to the video] crying that Mohammed Awal was
likely to fall off. To cut a long story short, the young man could not stand
the bullet wounds. He passed on, too! This was on Wednesday, August 28 2019.
If for the temporary
pangs of hunger I felt it so hard leaving my food to go report on that breaking
news ─ as journalism takes no excuses but results ─ then can the dependents of
these officers contain their ‘hunger’ for the years ahead? News reports suggest
that both Sgt. Michael Dzamesi and Lance Corporal Mohammed were breadwinners of
their respective families.
In 2019 alone, in a
matter of barely a month, five police officers’ lives have been agonizingly
taken by criminals.
Corporal Agatha Nana
Nabin with the Northern Regional Police Command was, on July 30, shot dead at a
police checkpoint. We are told it was on the Tamale-Kumbungu road in the
Sagnarigu District.
August 19 announced the
death of Corporal Bernard Antwi. The 37-year old was with the Manso Nkwanta
Divisional Command in the Ashanti region.
Corporal Antwi was
found dead at Manso Abodom in the Amansie West District of the region. News
reports suggest he died after working hours.
Akyem Swedru Police
Station’s General Lance Corporal Alhassan Asare also died on August 20. The
incident which happened at the Dukes Fuel Station, in the Eastern region, had
it that the 35-year old man had his rifle in between his thighs at the time of
his death. What is not clear is whether he [mistakenly] shot himself or someone
shot him.
Is it not heartbreaking
that your husband or wife, sister or brother says goodbye to you in the morning
that they are going to work and that they would be back only to hear they are
no more? They are no more because someone decided to take their life!
This, the Amnesty
International Ghana says we must respect the human rights of such criminals by
not killing them in return. So, for many months now, the human rights
organization has called on President Akufo Addo, the Attorney General and other
stakeholders to expunge the death penalty sentence in Ghana's legal system.
If you care to know, Amnesty
International Ghana actually wants the death penalty totally abolished from our
laws by close of this year.
“Ghana has not executed
anybody in the last ten years and it is believed to have established a practice
of not carrying out executions. Although no official moratorium executions are
in place, Ghana has not carried out an execution since 1993. Twenty countries
in sub-Saharan Africa have already abolished the death penalty for all crimes;
seven of which are in West Africa,” said the Director of Amnesty International
Ghana, Robert Akoto Amoafo, at the launch of the Global Death Penalty Report. So was it captured by the news portal,
Modern Ghana, in April 2019.
What irks me is Mr.
Amoafo’s reiterated position that killing the law court’s certified criminals
amounts to denying them their human rights.
“This is clear evidence
that all countries in ECOWAS have abolished the death penalty in one way or
another. The time is right for Ghana to join the league of abolitionist
countries in Africa and the world by abolishing death penalty for all crimes.
Let us all remember that death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights
and simply does not deter crime in any way.”
Can I ask the Amnesty
International Ghana if those the criminals killed had no human rights? I do
not, in any way, oppose the operations of the human rights organization. But, when
we embolden criminals this way, then I cannot help but speak up.
Is Robert Akoto Amoafo saying
death penalty does not deter crime in any way? Well, he is not alone holding on
to this assertion. Recently, I argued with a friend on same as he said if such
punishment works, America would have been crime-free. My simple answer to him
was that America’s crime rate stemmed from stupidity.
As I write this piece, August
31st, I have had notification on my phone from the BBC. It says, “A
mass random shooting in the Texas city of Odessa has left ‘multiple gunshot
victims’.” You cannot make the purchasing of guns as simple as one buying
tomatoes from the Mallam Market – in Accra – and expect a sane society!
Commenting on the
arrest of the crime suspect in the killing of the two police officers at Kasoa,
security analyst Adib Saani, rather made a stern case that criminals must be
shown the exit point of this world, too.
“A clear signal would
also have to be sent, at least, to deter them [criminals] from towing the same
line [committing murder]. And, I’m saying that – look – the legal regime would
have to change so killing our officers would be tantamount to crimes against
the state which invariably attracts death penalty,” Mr. Adib said in a TV3 interview.
Indeed, Ghana could be
a sane society as Japan if we would let common sense lead in how people get
access to guns, deal with persons who abuse the use of such guns and shun
Amnesty International Ghana’s hot air.
I must, however, add
that if anyone mistakenly kills – manslaughter ─ then we could respect the
human rights of such persons [killers] by sparing them to live on. We are all
fallible as humans. But, my point is, our fallibility plays no role when we internationally
perpetrate malice!
The writer is a
broadcast journalist with Media General [TV3/3FM]. Views expressed herein are
solely his, and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his
organisation whatsoever.
Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com
Twitter: @aniwaba