The Inspector General of Police (IGP) David Asante-Apeatu has sternly warned political vigilante groups and other lawbreakers in Ghana that they will be dealt with ruthlessly henceforth.
Following the brutal lynching of Major Maxwell Mahama, the invasion of the court in Kumasi to free suspects on trial by members of Delta Force among others, Civil Society groups including the major opposition political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) urged the government to quash the scourge.
Addressing a National Police Command Conference in the Ashanti region, IGP Asante-Apeatu urged his officers to fight the menace sternly without fear or favour.
“Let me emphasize this particular point to you all, do not hesitate to deal with lawbreakers. The laws of this country do not wear political colours, neither has crime any affiliation,” he stated.
Urging the police to be firm, impartial and above all professional in the discharge of their duties, he said “the pockets of impunity over the years climaxed by the twin death of late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama and Constable Michael Kporyi at Denkyira Obuase and Tema respectively – one gruesome and the other bizarre and this has offended the collective conscience of the Ghanaian people.”
Wondering why citizens have to kill the very people meant to protect them, he announced that such acts of impunity and lawlessness “can no longer be condone. Such cowardly behavior of a few social deviants cannot hold us back.”