DON'T METE OUT INSTANT JUSTICE TO SUSPECTED CRIMINALS (PAGE 20)

THE Director General in charge of Community Policing of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Florence Arthur, has directed community police personnel to ensure that no suspected criminals in their communities are subjected to instant justice.
She said as members of the communities in which they served, their utmost responsibility was to help provide security for every person but not to look on unconcerned while suspected criminals were being lynched.
ACP Arthur gave the directive when she addressed personnel of the Community Police at Koforidua on Wednesday.
ACP Arthur, who was accompanied by her assistant, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Marian Osei Kodjo, said it had always been the habit of people to subject suspected criminals to instant justice.
The development, she said, had in most cases led to the deaths of the suspects, some of who were later found out to be innocent.
ACP Arthur, therefore, directed them to ensure that no person in their communities was subjected to lynching, adding that it was a criminal act and those found guilty of that would be dealt with accordingly.
“Suspected and even convicted criminals should not be lynched; it is the courts of law which deal with them, so anybody found in that act would be dealt with according to the law”, ACP Arthur stated.
ACP Arthur was later led by the New Juaben Municipal Police Commander, Superintendent John Naami and the Eastern Regional Commander of the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), Superintendent James Sarfo Peprah, to address the Koforidua Zongo community.
She explained community policing and the activities of neighbourhood watchdog committees to the people and urged them to support the two concepts.
A spokesperson of the Zongo community, Alhaji Suleiman Salifu Ahmed, briefed the gathering and the police officers on how some people were creating confusing in the community and solicited the support of the police to prevent chaos and hostility.
Superintendent Naami said he was aware of the problem, adding that his outfit was investigating the issue to take the necessary action that would bring peace to the community.
He, therefore, called on the people to cooperate with the police in that respect.