Political vigilantism: Police lack potency, capacity to act – Fuseini

Member of Parliament for Tamale Central says the police are lacking the power and ability to deal with vigilante groups because they are made to be submissive to political authority.

According to Inusah Fuseini, the current democratic arrangement makes the police officer obey the orders of the powers that be without questioning.

He called for “a break with the past” where a party in government shields supporters who fall foul of the laws of the country in order to “deal with this impunity”, speaking on Joy FM/MultiTv's news analysis programme Newsfile, Saturday.

“It’s precisely because the people sometimes believe [and] feel that because they belong to the ruling government when they misbehave the ruling government will not deal with them.

“I think we need to make a break with the past and begin to deal with this bad aspect of our democracy in a way that will send a clear message to our people that these acts will not be tolerated in our democracy.”

This will give full assurance to the police to do their work free of political interference, noted the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Committee on Legal & Constitutional Affairs.

According to him, the arrangement “makes the police officer…subservient to the president. They lack the potency and capacity to handle such acts.”

Pressure is mounting on the police to arrest and prosecute riotous youth aligned to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) who earlier this week caused disturbances in the Karaga and Sisala districts in the Northern Region over the inability of their leaders to provide them with jobs 10 months after the party won political power.

Kweku Baako

But in a sharp disagreement to the MP’s suggestion for a break with the past, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, said perpetrators of similar disturbances under past NDC regimes should equally be made to face the laws.

“I want those [rampaging] people busted and dealt with in the face of the law. Same way the outstanding cases must be dealt with,” an emotional Baako charged.

The veteran journalist further urged the police to “stand up and do what their codes of conduct and their discipline tell them to do.”

In his opinion, “the history of non-enforcement [of the law] is at the root of the culture of impunity” which is gaining notoriety in the country’s democracy and requiring a decisive action to deter others from engaging in such acts in future.

Background

Last Wednesday, the Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Agency (NYEA) of Karaga District was forced to seek refuge in Tamale, following threats on his life.

Baba Janga was attacked by some supporters of his own party who accused him of being discriminatory in the recruitment exercise.

The office of the District Chief Executive was also shut down while the motorbike of the coordinator was set on fire early Wednesday morning.  

The Karaga Constituency Chairman of his party, Tahiru Zakari, as well as three others, suspected to be part of those who caused the disturbances at Karaga. The rest are Baba Ali Osman, Mohammed Alhassan and Abdullai Ziblim.

On Thursday, some unidentified youth in the Sissala west district chased the DCE of the area, Mohammad Bakor following a disagreement over the appointment of the coordinator for Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) for the district.

The youth claimed that the DCE betrayed their trust by appointing a different person to Coordinate MASLOC instead of their preference based on an agreement they reached with the DCE.

The police in the Sissala West District have assured the public that they will soon apprehend the members of the pro NPP vigilante groups who chased the DCE of the area out of office.

 

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