News:
October 10, 2011
Samuel Atta Akyea, Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, is entertaining serious doubt about the ability of the police administration to do a good job and justice to the alleged insult on Kobby Acheampong.
Mr Acheampong, a deputy Minister of Interior, claimed he was insulted by a police lance corporal on the Accra-Cape Coast road last week. He lodged a complaint through the phone to the Inspector General of Police, and eight police officers who had mounted a checkpoint at the place of the incident where hauled to the national police headquarters in Accra.
After preliminary investigations, L/Cpl Henry Addison was interdicted by the police administration. The rest were made to go on their normal duties and would be recalled to assist in the investigations as and when necessary.
Even before the police finish with their investigations on the alleged insult on the minister, the administration has been flogged by some junior officers and politicians mainly from the opposition in what they claimed is an unfair treatment being meted out to the police officers.
Contributing to a discussion on the above subject on Joy FM’s news analysis programme, Newsfile Saturday, lawyer Atta Akyea said he least expect the police to fault Mr Acheampong whose ministry has oversight responsibility over the police administration.
“Are you very serious that the police can come out with any serious investigations on this matter? Are they going to come out with findings of facts which will sort of go against their superior, the one who has the oversight responsibility over that ministry?…how can they come out with any sensible conclusion on this matter…I wonder if the police service can say that Kobby was lying?”
He therefore assumed that given the scenario the police find themselves in, “Kobby Acheampong will be a judge in his own case”.
Mr Atta Akyea is thus advocating for an independent body to investigate the incident as alleged by the “temperamental” deputy minister, “and then Kobby will be a witness, Kobby needs to prove his case”.
He proposed that the IGP may have to confer with the Chief Justice to appoint a Supreme Court judge to chair the inquisitorial body.
But Mahama Ayariga, deputy Minister of Education, vehemently disagreed with Mr Akyea that the police cannot do justice on the case, and also refuted, under the circumstance, the claims that Kobby would be judge on his own case.
As he encouraged the police to speed up investigations into the incident, he also appealed to Mr Acheampong to refrain from making any public pronouncement on the matter.
He also asked politicians to refrain from politicizing the case, and chided Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, NPP General Secretary for issuing a statement on the case which sought to indicate that Kobby was guilty.
Benjamin Akyena Brentuo, a member of government communications team, claimed that the police preliminary investigations have indicated that the checkpoint where the incident happened was unauthorized, and was also at a dangerous place.
For the Publisher of the Ghanaian Observer newspaper, Egbert Faibille, the way and manner the eight police were arrested and brought to the headquarters was inimical to the laws of Ghana, more especially, when, said, the police involved have “not breached any laws” insulting a deputy minister.
Myjoyonline.com