Don't break the law to enforce it - Bartels

Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Interior Minister, Mr Kwamena Bartels, has reminded personnel of the security agencies to operate within the confines of the law.
He said security personnel did not have to break the law to enforce it, since that would send a wrong signal to the public.
Mr Bartels said this when the family of the late George Kojo Atuah, alias Maclean, the mini-bus driver who was brutalised to death, called on him to thank him for the expeditious manner in which the committee set up to probe the death worked on the investigations.
The committee, which was chaired by Mr Edward Agyeman Duodu, a Principal State Attorney, submitted its report to the Minister on Monday.
The report indicted two policemen and two soldiers and recommended their prosecution.
Atuah left behind a five-month old pregnant wife, Madam Florence Asiedu, and a four-year-old son.
Mr Bartels explained that to be tasked with the job of enforcing the law did not mean that security personnel had the right to do anything.
He said the fact that the deceased was escaping showed that he was guilty but to pursue and beat him resulting in his death was very extreme.
He said the government was making efforts to deal with the problem of mob justice but if that phenomenon was perpetrated by law enforcement agencies, then it was serious.
Mr Bartels said the prosecution of the four officers would send the signal to the others to exhibit professionalism in the discharge of their duties, stressing that this was an exceptional case and a blatant misuse of power.
He said the police were doing an excellent job to combat crime in the face of the numerous challenges confronting them.
He, however, said there were a few bad lots who wanted to drag the reputation of the police into the mud.
Mr Bartels said the report had already been forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Department for study and advice especially with regards to the issue of compensation to the family.
The leader of the delegation, Mr Kingsford Pobee, alias Wofa Yaw, expressed the appreciation of the family to the Minister for his swift response to the concerns of the public.
He said the report of the committee had put to rest the suspicions of the family and expressed the hope that the recommendations would be implemented as soon as practicable.
Atuah’s death in police custody stirred controversy. Members of his family accused the security operatives of his murder but the police rejected that accusation and claimed that the man died of diarrhoea in police custody on August 3, 2007.
But the committee found Detective Lance Corporal Felix Kwasi Dagadu, Constable David Darko, both of the Ghana Police Service, Staff Sergeant Roger Adama and Cpl Ibrahim Bukari, both of the Ghana Army, guilty of the offence and recommended their prosecution to serve as a deterrent to others.
The committee established that the four, who were members of the nine-member patrol team which arrested the deceased, severely assaulted him, noting further that the pathologist’s report indicated that the deceased died as a result of massive internal bleeding.