Private Legal Practitioner and Journalist with the Multimedia Group, Mr Samson Lardy Anyenini has called for the disbandment of the Ministry of National Security.
According to the Lawyer, operatives of the Ministry have failed to deliver on their mandate as an intelligence-gathering unit of the state. Rather, they have constantly engaged in the abuse of their powers by mostly functioning as a police force.
This is indeed true as the Ministry has been in the news lately for the bad reasons.
The Chronicle can also say that the ministry, among its functions to formulate, coordinate, monitoring and evaluate the implementation of security and intelligence policies through the deployment of skilled human resources and modern technology for stakeholders to enhance security, freedom of the citizenry and national development, seem to be deviating from its responsibility.
Just a few days ago, members of the ministry assaulted a journalist, Mr Caleb Kudah, who works for Accra-based media outlet, Citi Fm. The reason for the assault, according to perpetrators of the heinous act, was that Mr. Kudah had filmed some security installations at their premise, which is a haram.
Meanwhile, according to Mr Kudah, he had gone to the Ministry to film some abandoned MASLOC vehicles parked at the premises of the Ministry. Before embarking on this assignment, Mr Kudah had complained on social media about the wastage of public funds, making reference to the abandoned MASLOC cars.
But an official of MASLOC responded to Mr Kudah’s post on social media that all the cars had been given out. This even made Mr Kudah delete his post and apologise to MASLOC.
Years later, Mr Kudah indicated he sighted the vehicles that were supposedly given out still at the exact spot that they were parked and thought it wise as a journalist to let Ghanaians know how the tax payers’ monies were being used.
After the National Security had arrested Mr Kudah and alleged molested him at their premise, a team of heavily-armed SWAT police officers also stormed Citi FM offices to arrest Zoe Abu-Baidoo, because Caleb had forwarded some of the footage he captured to her.
Mr. Caleb Kudah in subsequent interviews narrated how he was slapped several times by the security officers and also insisted that he was kicked in the groin by a senior officer.
Before the Caleb issue will die down, another group purporting to be from the same National Security stormed the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council to forcibly remove the Regional Security Coordinator, DCOP Ayensu Opare Addo (rtd) out of his office.
It was later found out that the officers were not members of National Security but rather the vigilante group, Delta Force, which were supposedly disbanded some years ago.
For us at The Chronicle, we believe that the supposed disbanded vigilante group had the temerity to disguise itself as National Security operatives due to the haphazard manner they go about their business in the country.
The level of brutality and assault is what is causing people like Mr Anyenini to ask for their disbandment. The Chronicle thinks disbanding the ministry is too extreme. We believe that there is already a panacea that can be found in the Emile Short Commission report.
The Short Commission in 2019 investigated the violence that characterised a by-election in Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency.
The Commission recommended that the SWAT team of the National Security Council Secretariat should be disbanded and operatives be reassigned.
They also recommended that intelligence-based agencies should operate under the law and be guided by the fundamental human rights of citizens.
The Commission also recommended that operatives of the National Security Council should be trained to internalise human rights rules; including the provisions on the fundamental human rights of the Constitution within their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
We believe that if the SWAT team had been disbanded as recommended by the Commission, some of these brutalities we are witnessing today wouldn’t be happening.
We believe it’s not too late to go back and implement the Short Commission recommendations for the good of the country.
The post Editorial: National Security brouhaha: Let’s go back to Short Commission Report appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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