Columnist: Kwaku Badu
The spate of monstrous crimes, such as armed robberies, kidnappings, and mindless murders during Mahama’s administration, in fact, prompted The then IGP in 2015 to inaugurate a seven-member committee, codenamed –Cold Case – to investigate the rampant armed robberies and murder cases, locate perpetrators and put forward recommendations (See: Police inaugurates special unit to investigate murder cases – MyJoyOnline, 30/01/2015).
The fact however remains that vicious and sanguineous crimes have unfortunately been a societal problem from time in memorial. So, it is quite unfortunate for no less a person than former President Mahama to resort to petty politicking in this moment of sorrow.
Considering the volume of heinous crimes under his watch, the thoughtful observers cannot be faulted for upbraiding former President Mahama for inferring that Ghanaians do not feel safe under the current Akufo-Addo led administration.
That being said, the ceaseless and senseless armed robberies and murders in the country cannot be allowed to pass without commenting.
Regrettably, the most recent of such witless and fiendish murders took place in the Central Region, where some mindless hoodlums barbarically took the life of the NPP Member of Parliament for Mfantseman Constituency, the Honourable Ekow Hayford.
In retrospect, the revoltingly horrible leaked audio tape, alleged to have emanated from the opposition NDC’s meeting sometime last year, somehow, gives credence to the sceptics claim that the owner of the voice in the audio has questions to answer over the perceived insecurity in the country.
In the said leaked tape, observers can hear clearly how the remorseless suspect is detailing his diabolic scheme to cause mayhem in the country by kidnapping the perceived opponents and their family members.
The suspect unblushingly went ahead to tell the audience, believed to be the executives of the party, to attack the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Jean Mensa, and insult the then Peace Council Chairman, Professor Emmanuel Asante.
Mind you, any serious investigative body anywhere in the world will cause the arrest of the protagonist and any deuteragonist in the audio tape over the ceaseless and mindless attacks in the country.
This is the reason why back then I suggested that the Criminal Investigation Department unnecessarily delayed in its investigations. However, it is better late than never, they say.
In fact, the Police should have started preparing for action as soon as former President Mahama declared that the National Democratic Congress has a revolutionary root, and when it comes to unleashing extreme violence, no one can beat them.
I have stressed on numerous occasions that some of us regrettably witnessed the revoltingly ugly events which took place over a period of three decades (1970-1990s) and therefore cannot be hoodwinked by the inveterate propagandists to believing that political violence is not synonymous with NDC.
It is absolutely true that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was formed on the ideals of militant vigilantism, and therefore it is somewhat baffling to hear the baseless claims from the NDC quarters that the party is not synonymous with violence.
The story is told, though vividly, that in their desperate attempts to defend their illegitimate power and lay the foundation for a supposedly true democracy in Ghana, the founders of the NDC officially set up paramilitary organs such as the People’s Defence Committee (PDC), the Civil Defence Organisation (CDO), which was popularly known as the Militia and the Workers Defence Committee (WDC), where the last two organs were later reorganised and renamed as the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR), whose collective mandate was to defend the revolution by hook or by crook.
The CDRs were established in villages, urban communities, and workplaces and intended to be the organs of popular power and political initiative.
In addition, Forces’ Defence Committees were established in the armed forces and the police service.
The June Four Movement was a militant mass revolutionary movement dedicated to keeping alive the ideals of the June 4 1979 uprising that Rawlings had led. It sought to arouse the population at large to assist in establishing so-called people’s power within the avowed objectives of the revolutionary process.
“The PDCs and the WDCs (Workers Defence Committees) had their own courts and “meted out justice according to no established legal procedures” [Amnesty International, 1983).
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the PNDC’s political opposition back then vehemently contested the democratic nature of such organs and saw them as nothing but state-sponsored vigilantes engaged in intimidation and human rights abuses (Source: U.S. Library of Congress).
It is against such background that some of us were extremely surprised when former President Mahama stated on radio on Friday 22nd February 2019 that President Akufo-Addo is rather the father of the militant vigilantism in contemporary Ghanaian politics.
Dearest reader, take my word for it; nothing could be further from the truth.
How on earth would a supposedly responsible opposition persistently organise clandestine meetings with the view to making the country ungovernable?
We cannot, therefore, accuse the critics of harbouring risible and inborn proclivity for suggesting that violence is the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) available political tool.
Somehow, the sceptics hit the nail on the head for suggesting some time ago that the insecurity in the country may be a scheming guile being orchestrated by some conspiratorial plotters to make the incumbent NPP government look bad in the eyes of the voting public.
To be quite honest, some of us were extremely concerned about the spate of vicious and calculated armed robbery attacks on innocent citizens and denizens a few months into the NPP’s administration.
It was against such backdrop that some of us shared in President Rawlings sentiments that the deadly armed robbery attacks in the country could well be the work of unpatriotic partisan creatures motivated from either within or without to undermine the nation’s security; (See: I hope robberies are not politically motivated-Rawlings; starrfmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 01/03/2018).
Ex-President Rawlings was reported to have expressed grave concern over the insecurity and thus wrote on his Twitter page: “Let us hope the recent robbery and killings is downright plain robbery and not a politically motivated action from within or without, calculated to undermine those in charge of the security machinery in order to pave the way for certain parochial ambitions.”
Given the ugly nature of African politics, some of us could not help but to echo former President Rawlings’s sentiments of a probable conspiratorial plot to undermine the country’s security and the NPP government as a whole.
Apparently, former President Rawlings smelled a foul play when some people were hopping from one Radio/Television station to another nagging, shrieking and grouching over the serious national disaster such as the bloody armed robbery attacks without proffering any practicable solutions.
In as much as some of us do not want to succumb to the widely held notion that politics in general is a dirty game, it would not be farfetched for drawing an adverse inference that the political terrain is full of manipulating geezers who will do anything possible to win political advantage.
We should, therefore, not lose sight of the fact that political opportunists are not limited to Africa; it is rather a global phenomenon.
However, in my humble opinion, it is our part of the world (Africa), where political gimmicks and extreme vindictiveness are widespread.
Perhaps, this is so because we have greater number of unlettered folks, many of whom cannot choose between unrepentant tricksters and morally upright politicians.
Like former President Rawlings, some of us have been harbouring a gleam of suspicion on our mind over the evil hands of the faceless partisan creatures in the insecurity in the country.
Believe it or not, the NDC’s leaked horrible audio tape shows how some partisan creatures can conceive and deliver a diabolic plot with the view to winning electoral advantage over their opponents.
It was against such background that some of us saw nothing wrong when the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) invited the alleged protagonist in the horrible leaked audio tape as part of the investigations into the spate of inexplicable fire outbreaks and the mindless kidnappings of innocent Ghanaians.
So, some of us were extremely flabbergasted when the NDC’s Communication Officer, Sammy Gyanfi, a young officer of the court, furiously came out and castigated President Akufo-Addo and the then CID Director-General, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah for prudently inviting the suspect in the leaked audio tape for interrogation over the insecurity in the country.
Shockingly, however, following the release of the invitation letter, the young lawyer was heard on Asempa FM’s afternoon political show on Wednesday 8th May 2019, forcefully emitting his fury in condemnation over the invitation and impertinently declaring that NDC as an opposition party won’t allow the suspect to honour the Police’s request.
I was, indeed, astonished over the young lawyer’s weird disposition. So I soliloquised: doesn’t he know that he is perverting the cause of justice?
Yes, the suspect in question may be a prominent member of the opposition NDC, but the rule of law is not a respecter of person or group of persons. Suffice it to stress that everyone is equal before the law.
In essence, no one is above the law. What is paramount, though, is for the law court to give the accused person a fair hearing.
Dearest reader, why wouldn’t the Police be alarmed over the leaked tape when former President Mahama had earlier declared that the National Democratic Congress has a revolutionary root and when it comes to unleashing extreme violence, no one can beat them?
K. Badu, UK.
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