It is dangerous when citizens begin to lose confidence in law enforcement and the justice administration system. Unfortunately that is the situation unfolding in the country today.
When security personnel are unable to deal with offences because they originate from persons belonging to the ruling party then citizens have good cause to start questioning the quality of the rule of law in the country.
The law of nature where the strongest survives does not belong to decent societies. We claim to belong to a decent society where the aforementioned state of nature has no place but with only members of one political party being arrested when they are perceived to have passed distasteful remarks to government something is definitely wrong.
Unfortunately these days there have been instances of this shortcoming taking place as selectiveness becomes a feature of law enforcement. Mugabe Maase and two others noted for their unguarded remarks which had them arrested and jailed when they disrespected the then Chief Justice Georgina Woode were pardoned by President John Mahama. The worrying message his gesture evoked should not trigger smiles on our countenances because of its far-reaching implications.
President Mahama’s pardon gesture was to recognize the three for their loyalty to him. Decent countries are not built this way we dare state.
With no lessons learnt from the earlier episode Mugaabe Mase is at it again. He has reportedly accused the Ashanti Regional Police Command of being implicit in the hiring of firearms to armed robbers citing especially women in the law enforcement system.
To date nothing has happened on the part of the Police who as the IGP himself stated recently now has a Cyber Monitoring Unit which unit eavesdrops as it were on chats on social media. We do not think that the Police has not heard this. A citizen has petitioned the IGP over the accusation but with no action so far from the Chief Constable we think that a full-fledged state of selectiveness in policing is in place. How sad!!!
With the recent noisy instances of the police and other state security agencies inviting or even arresting persons who have expressed opinions distasteful to the government the non-response to the Mugabe open accusation triggers questions about whether or not the Police do not act when NDC is involved but do so when the NPP members are culprits.
In one such instance in the North East Region a district police commander invited someone because he had expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the District Chief Executive.
Some remarks when they are uttered have the tendency to derail peace and cohesion of the country. But even when these occur there are better and civil means of addressing them as opposed to the Rambo approach and accompanying hefty bail conditions attached being exacted today. We are still waiting for the IGP’s action which we doubt is going to happen anyway. To think that a regional police command is hiring out firearms to armed robbers is such a serious accusation. Perhaps there is something Mugabe knows that the rest of us don’t. That is why the IGP should invite him for coffee. We shall wait and see.
