Chairperson of the National Commission on Civic Education, Josephine Nkrumah, has charged government to reconsider its position on the Ayawaso West Wuogon Committee report.
According to her, if the existing gap is not bridged, both the citizenry and the police would suffer the consequences of lack of harmony.
She also suggested that an independent police complaint commission be created to build police-citizen trust.
Government in its White Paper last month rejected most of the findings of the committee tasked to investigate events surrounding the mayhem recorded during a by-election at Ayawaso West Wuguon.
Although government defended its position in the White paper, a section of Ghanaians and some civil society groups have had cause to question the position of the state.
Speaking on Alert with Adam Bona, Madam Nkrumah asked government to soften its stands on the findings of the report.
She said “I think it ought to reconsider that. It must reconsider that and I say that because as we work down the ground, you see that increasingly there is a shuzzle between the police and the citizenry and it shouldn’t be so.”
“We need something that begins to bridge that gap and I think that having an independent police complaint commission, is one of the ways that we can address it. Because at the end of the day the people suffer and the police suffer. They don’t get the cooperation they need from the police, the citizenry don’t have the confidence and trust they ought to have including the political parties. That is one way of addressing transparency and bridging that gap so that we begin to engender the needed trust in this force,” she explained.
“But why is it that people decide to take the law in their own hands, because they think that ‘when I go to the police won’t get my grievance resolved for one or two reasons, the police is looking at his own personal interest or there is some big man somewhere that is instructing him to behave in a certain way.’”
She ended “but when the police man himself is aware that he can do his work without fear or favour we would discharge his duties as he is ought to.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
