Feature: George Ernest Asare
THE incident at Ashaiman on June 3, 2008, where irate drivers in the Ashaiman township, clashed with the police, leading to the death of two persons, including an 11-year-old boy, Moses Kassim, again puts to test the efficiency and combat readiness of the police for riot control.
It also questions the investments the state has made over the years in terms of providing resources for the Police Service for the purpose of efficient and effective policing in the country .
According to a Daily Graphic report on June 4, 2008, a seven-hour stand-off, between irate drivers at Ashaiman (whose ranks were later infiltrated by hooligans ) and the police, almost turned the Ashaiman township into a war zone.
" With the bodies of the dead and blood spilled on the main street, Ashaiman, for the greater part of the day, looked like a war zone until nature intervened with a heavy downpour to wash away the blood and dispersed the crowd", That was part of the Daily Graphic report on the Ashaiman incident.
The report further indicated that "those who dropped dead from the police shooting were a driver, identified as Mustapha Somah, 24 and an 11-year-old school boy, Moses Kassim, who was trapped in the commotion while selling sachet water".
It also stated that " in the confusion, all roads leading to the town were blocked, and lorry tyres were set ablaze in the middle of the roads " adding, " police vehicles and private cars belonging to individuals were smashed by the angry mob, leaving some beyond repairs".
In the same issue of the Daily Graphic, the Minister of State at the Ministry of the Interior, Nana Obiri Boahen, was reported to have described the Ashaiman incident " as unfortunate and unnecessary".
Nana Obiri Boahen was reported to have said that "there was no justification whatsoever for the action of the mob that attacked the police station and the rented barracks of the police at Zongo Laka, a suburb of Ashiaman, where the wives and children of the police were subjected to severe beatings".
The action of the mob was based on a report made by a section of the electronic media that, "a driver from Ashaiman who was arrested by the police a day before, had died in cells as a result of a severe beating he received from the Police".
It was in the course of finding out the authenticity of the news or otherwise, that the Palestinian style stone throwing to repel armed security men started, causing the police to react immediately in military fashion, leading to the death of the two.
The Ashaiman incident, and others that occassionally occur in the country, underlines the need for the police to be adequately prepared at any point in time and to use the right methods to quell mob attacks in a more effective and efficient way.
The reports in the Daily Graphic proves that, the Police in Ashaiman used live ammunition in controlling the mob who stormed the Ashaiman police station instead of rubber bullets , water cannons and tear gas canisters, which are the acceptable methods in contemporary times for the control of mob action. The essence here is to bring fatalities to the barest minimum.
The question is, would the police have resorted to the use of live ammunitions instead of rubber bullets and tear gas canisters if they were readily available at the station, and at the time the mob started pelting them with stones?
What about weapons that are used in firing the rubber bullets, as well as water cannons and armoured cars that are the best equipment for riot control .
How trained are the police in the skill of firing tear gas canisters when the need arises?
Going back to the incidents of rioting in the country, and police response over the years, especially the May 9, 2001 Accra Sports Stadium incident, which claimed over 100 lives and maimed many others, there have been serious lapses in the control of violence in the country.
A telephone interview with two senior police officers in Accra on the inability of the police to effectively deal with riot control in Ghana revealed that, all Police Training Schools in Ghana do not include riot control in their syllabi.
" Police recruits do not learn anything about riot control in their six-month training at the various Police training schools in Ghana to build their capacity, and so they come out ill-equipped when it comes to riot control " they revealed, adding "even when it comes to weapon handling, it is a mere three -week training that is offered the recruits, so how can they come out well equipped to handle weapons and mob action in the country?
According to the senior police officers, many police stations in the country have no access to tear gas canisters , rubber bullets and weapons used in firing rubber bullets. They also pointed out that the public has a wrong perception that rubber bullets are readily available at all police stations, " but that is not so. This is because rubber bullets are only kept in the armoury at the regional and national head quarters, and it was only when there was violence at a particular community that the rubber bullets , together with the special weapons used in firing them, are released to police men to control crowd violence".
"If ordinary rubber bullets are not available at the various police stations to enable the police control crowd violence when the need arises, the least said about water cannons, tear gas canisters and armour cars the better", the officers said. They pointed out that it takes a lot of time for rubber bullets and tear gas canisters to be transported to the areas where they are needed in case of mob violence.
"So if the police are under fire through mob action, do they wait to be lynched before they defend themselves? One of the officers questioned.
They said that apart from these vital facilities, the duration for training police recruits also undermine their efficiency and combat readiness.
They explained that while countries in the Middle East and Europe offered three years of training for their recruits which “ makes them fully baked police men, capable of handling any form of crime, including mob action, we in Ghana offer a mere six months training for our recruits, so how can we build their capacity in a way that would make it possible for them to operate efficiently?"
They noted that to address the lapses in the Police Service, the was the need for the service to be completely overhauled.
We need to be trained and re-trained, but can you believe that many police men have never received further training since they passed out from the depot several years ago?
On the activities of the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) and their impact on riot control and violence in the country, the police officers said that the RDF was not the answer to combating violence in the country.
They said that the RDF was concentrated in Accra and a few urban centres "so how can they be deployed rapidly when there is an emergency in any part of the country?”
"If every recruit has the ability to combat violence in a more effective and efficient manner, there would be no need to create any unit in any part of the country" they noted.
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