Appeal To Government To Protect The Civil Liberties Of The Citizen

The Alliance for the Advancement of Democracy wishes to express our condolence to the many that have lost their lives as a result of demonstration and public protest. And the many that have been maim as a result of the unprofessional conduct of some of our policemen and soldiers.

Since the coming into effect of the 4th Republican Constitution, there has been countless number of individual citizens and policemen who has lost their lives either due to the negligence of the citizen or the unprofessional conduct of the police/soldiers during public demonstrations, a right of expression enshrined in the Ghanaian constitution and applied under the public order act.

The beating of demonstrating Teachers, the lives lost in Akwamufie as a result of police interference in break up an otherwise peaceful public protest and shorting of a member of the public during the Tamale riots should further engage the attention of the all lovers of the protection of the civil liberties of our people.

Among the reasons attributed to such an unfortunate situation are the following: a) The inability of the police/soldiers to mobilise enough men to contain the behaviour of demonstrators.

b) The limited number of accoutrement for containing demonstrators e.g. water cannons, bullet proof vests and helmets, teaser guns and rubber bullets, shields, shock/electric buttons, vehicles and tear gas. These items are probably not available in most Divisional and Districts Police Command throughout the country

c) These bring to the fore the use of the wrong accoutrement by the police, leading to the use of live ammunition on demonstrators which sometimes causes death.

d) The state of the policeman/soldier before being invited to sign up to contain rioting or demonstration, sometimes of the men is not the best mood.

e) The inability of the police/military to gather prior intelligence before some of these demonstrations thus not been proactive enough.

f) The mistrust, suspicion and the conception of bias by public in the leadership of the police command especially if the demonstration was meant to either expose or highlight the wrongs of an individual, a group of people,a politician or the ruling government.

g) The police/military are alleged in some instances to have compromise their position especially when the protest has to do with factionalism.

h) The inability of the police/military to use the appropriate state organ e.g. the court to restrain the public from going ahead with these public protest especially when the actions of the public were not spontaneous but the police were privy to a revelation of pending insecurity during the public protest.

i) The police by their previous acts of omission or commission are known to have bad community relations. Example when policemen in uniform go drinking alcohol with members of the public during working hours, taking gifts as consideration, flirting with known criminals and brutalising members of the public when slightly provoked .

j) The use of the Police/Military by selfish and ambitious politicians and members of the public to pursue their private agenda.

Apart from the above, poor professional judgement and negligence on the part of the police/military have caused the death or maiming of members of the public and their own, sometimes in the name of fighting crime or resisting arrest. We wish to commend the effort been made by the Police Administration/Military High commands for keeping the peace, knowing their limitations , and we say ayekoo to the IGP/CDS and his men.

We further wish to suggest that the Police Administration should strengthen its PIP unit and if possible get a custom care unit to help improve the image of the police before it gets worse.

The police could create a unit called the mystery unit who would pay random visits to the various police stations to monitor and evaluate their men as to whether standards were being maintained and report to the PIP.

The PIP unit could also serve as a unit to address community concerns by having regular interactions with the public. This we hope would also enhance the image of the police if properly organised.

The Alliance for Advancement of Democracy decries the use of live ammunition and the manner police/military conduct their operations whenever they have to contain a public protest.

It is alleged that some policemen torture people in their custody and also beat suspects arrested and when ask to explain by judges in our courts, they always claim that the suspect was resisting arrest, this behaviour we are aware is frowned by international conventions and the 4th Republican Constitution. It is about time the law is change to allow errant policeman/soldiers to bear the consequences of their irresponsible actions instead of the state. The state we think have a lot to do with our courts and should not bear the liabilities of a professionally trained policeman/soldier.

We would also like to advise the public to also respect and cooperate with the police/military in maintaining the peace we are enjoying in the country. The police/military we believe would do better if we could support them in the discharge of their duty by offering the needed information and material assistance.

What the policeman/soldier should understand is that the dynamics of policing under a democratic or constitutional rule is different because of the fundamental rights and liberties enshrined in the constitution which all of us would have to obey.

To the government of the NDC a life lost, be it that of the citizen or the police/soldier are all equally of important to the state. It would be noted that, most of these lives lost as a result of these actions are young people who are in their productive age.

Government we believe owe the citizen, policeman and the soldier a duty of care as enshrined in the constitution and should take the necessary steps to address the concerns raised by AAD.

We would be grateful if the government would assist the Ghana Police Service and the Military with the needed resources to enable them keep the peace in the most humanly manner such to avert the destructions of lives and also be in the position to cab the blatant abuse of the civil liberties of the people .

AMZAT MOHAMMED SHERIFF 0242861465