Once again, the Ghana Police Service has reported yet more deaths of individuals in its custody.
It has become something of a fashion for armed robbers and people suspected of serious offences to meet fatal ‘accidents’ in police custody in Ghana.
If it is not that the people died whilst exchanging gunfire with the police, then the people died whilst escaping, or in the latest and most bizarre of twists, whilst they were ‘leading’ police officers in ‘intelligence-led operations’ into to the hideout of criminals.
In the latest release from the police administration, the Director-General of Police Public Affairs, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Kwesi Ofori, has ‘clarified’ what led to the killing of two policemen at Borteyman near Ashaiman.
If anything, however, Mr. Kwesi Ofori’s account beggars even more questions, as to how two officers in custody on suspicion of leading bullion can attacks, were the only ones who were killed in an ‘intelligence-led’ operation.
According to DCOP Kwesi Ofori, the two policemen who were fully in police custody were ‘leading’ the police to the hideout of the suspected criminal gang.
He does not clarify the nature of the ‘leading’, whether the police deputation to the ‘hideout’ of the ‘criminals’ were on foot, in a vehicle or any other necessary detail apart from the bizarre suggestion that they were in an ‘intelligence-led field’ operation.
He does not explain whether the incident happened on a road, in a building, in a community or provide any other detail apart from the fact that they died in a shootout.
Oddly, whilst the two suspects died, there are no other reports of injuries to other officers, and no other reports of injuries to equipment.
There are also no situation reports or situational pictures along with the press release from the police administration.
Many people have often wondered how suspects in the hands of the Ghana Police Service turn up dead these days.
Recently, a police officer was killed by armed robbers who attacked a bullion van. When reports began to emerge that some police officers were suspects in these attacks, one had hoped that these suspects would live long enough to help unravel any such cells in the police administration.
Now, such suspects are dying strangely in ‘intelligence-led’ operations.
We believe that the police is beginning to acquire an image akin to the image it enjoyed during the PNDC days, and we cannot but insist that the police step back from this dark precipice.
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