The Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada believes that calls for Members of Parliament (MPs) to be given police protection are unfounded.
Following the manner in which the Member of Parliament for the Mfantseman constituency, Ekow Quansah Hayford was killed, MPs have renewed calls for state-sponsored security.
Mr. Hayford was shot on the Abeadze Dominase–Abeadze Duadzi–Mankessim road in the Central Region by some unknown assailants believed to be armed robbers.
The Speaker of Parliament subsequently summoned the Interior Minister to update the House on measures to enhance security during the electioneering period. The Interior Minister is expected to appear in the House on Tuesday, October 13, 2020.
Mr. Akwada insists such calls are flawed.
He rather says the MPs should do their job to ensure the entire Ghanaian populace are safe and not for a few privileged persons.
“If we would want to accept that a group of people can literally block a route and rob people and kill people and our only excuse is that the police doesn’t have logistics to protect us, then, wherein lies our safety? Wherein our governance, wherein lies the security of the democracy that we seek to enjoy today? And the danger is even escalated when we begin to talk about police protection for MPs. That is the most flawed argument, the most flawed proposition I can hear from anyone in the security space. Then what about us, the ordinary Ghanaian? That is the basic question.”
“We are going to sit as a civil society organization and watch all the drivers in the political space checkout of the system. It should never happen for security. As I speak now, all the key actors in this country have all checked out of the system. They don’t buy fuel, but we buy so when we are complaining that things are tough, they don’t know. They don’t pay electricity bills and everything.”
Mr. Akwada made these comments when he appeared on Citi TV‘s Breakfast Daily Show on Monday, October 12, 2020.
Don’t seek protection for yourselves; make sure the country is safe -Festus Aboagye
A security analyst, Col. Festus Aboagye also rejected such calls by the MPs.
He (Col. Festus Aboagye) in a Citi News interview rather urged the MPs to ensure that the security agencies are up to the task to protect all Ghanaians.
“My position is using the moral arguments that the elites in this country are suggesting to the rest of Ghanaians that they are special and therefore they must be given police protection, but they are doing little to ensure that the police can provide adequate security for the rest of the citizenry. And we must address that the moral dilemma because if we don’t address it and tomorrow IGP is able to provide police protection to parliamentarians, the country may still not be safe because it is going to expose the rest of us.”
Source: Citinewsroom.com