Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, a statesman and former military officer from Ghana, claims that running a militia alongside the regular police is to blame for the Ghana Police Service’s current difficulties controlling crowds.
He cited the incident at Ayawaso West Wuogon as an obvious example of militia performing police functions.
“Were the police officers you saw in the so-called nice clothes regular police officers?” He questioned
Speaking with Alfred Ocansey on the 3FM Sunrise Morning Show about his observations of the two-day Arise Ghana demonstration, which was organized by the Arise Ghana Movement in cooperation with some political parties from Tuesday, June 28, to Wednesday, June 29, 2022, was the former ambassador of Ghana to Serbia and Montenegro.
On the first day of the protest, there was a bloody altercation between the protestors and the police.
According to Mr. Nyaho-Tamakloe, he is not surprised by the recent occurrences of police mistreating demonstrators and using excessive force against people in addition to assaulting civilians.
“I am surprised some of you are surprised about what is happening now. They are political elements not professional people. When you have a militia and regular police service, the militia definitely overtakes the roles of the regular police and that is what we are seeing now” Nyaho-Tamakloe expressed.
He recalled that demonstrations have been conducted in Ghana since the days of Nkrumah and there have been a series of serious protests across subsequent political regimes as recent as the ‘ku me preko’ demo during the time of Jerry Rawlings.
Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said the Police, then, were more cooperative and protected protesters successfully.
“A significant event was a rally we had in Kumasi, same as ‘kume preko’ but I think we called it ‘sie me preko’. When we got there, we saw the military lined up when we were marching to Kumasi and our people were charged, and the soldiers had their heads down with their rifles just pointing to the ground. I was shocked and we passed peacefully,” he said.
He explained that even when the leadership of the ‘sie me preko’ demo had left the grounds for refreshment elsewhere, the Ashanti Regional Police Commander at the time came to them in a civil and diplomatic manner to plead with them to go back to the grounds and dismiss the protesters since the protesters insisted they wouldn’t disperse until the leaders of the demonstration ask them to do so.
According to Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe, modern policing is not about the show of force and what the police did on the first day of the demonstration was fruitless and a disgrace to the people of Ghana. He again recommends that communication is a very powerful way of solving problems and opined that the second day of the Arise Ghana Demonstration was peaceful because of effective communication between the police and leaders of the protest.
