The Executive Director of the West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism (WACCE), Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar, wants Ghana’s security agencies to be depoliticised to inject some professionalism into their operations.
His comment follows allegation of assault on a Citi FM/TV reporter, Caleb Kudah, by national security operatives and another attack on the Ashanti Regional security liaison officer, DCOP Opare Addo.
Speaking to Kofi Abotsi on Townhall Talk on Asaase Radio (21 May), Muqthar said Ghanaians have over the years had trust in the military because it has been apolitical.
“If you are looking for professionalism within the security agencies, we need to take away politics from these institutions, …there is a reason [that] for so many years we seem to have so much trust in the army than in the police service, or other allied institutions,” he said.
He added: “If you look at the Police Council it talks about the fact that the Police Service is at the direction and control of the council. When you come to the military, it is at the direction and control of the Armed Forces council, only in policy.”
Muqthar noted that although the president is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, politicians stay away from the military as compared to the other security agencies.
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National security report disappointing
Meanwhile, the pressure group, OccupyGhana, has expressed disappointment in the work of the committee established to investigate the arrest of a Citi FM journalist, Caleb Kudah, by National Security operatives.
The group’s comment comes on the back of the release of a report by the four-member committee tasked by the National Security Minister to investigate last week’s arrest.
Speaking to Nana Yaa Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday, a spokesman for the group, Kweku Segbefia, said that the report leaves much to be desired.
“My first reaction was: ‘Is that it?’ I was expecting something deeper, something better, so when I saw it I was disappointed, obviously in the brevity of the action they took …” he said.
Segbefia added: “First and foremost, is it that the committee then ruled that Caleb Kudah’s entry into the premises of the Ministry of National Security was unlawful, so the committee acted as both prosecutor and judge and passed judgement on the action of the journalist?”
The spokesman said the committee’s work has failed to address the alleged brutalisation and assault of the journalist.
The pressure group says it is maintaining its initial call for the government to set up an independent inquiry into the case.
Background
The Ministry of National Security has concluded its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest of a Citi FM journalist, Caleb Kudah, and established that its officers’ conduct was “inappropriate and contravened the standard operating procedures” of the ministry.
Consequently, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Agyeman, the director of operations at National Security, and three other officers have been withdrawn from the ministry and asked to report at their respective bases for investigation.
In a press statement, the ministry said: “The secondment of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Agyeman (director of operations) at the ministry has been reversed. The officer is to report to the Chief of Defence Staff for further investigations and appropriate action.”
Three other National Security personnel involved in the arrest have been withdrawn and instructed to report to the Ghana Police Service for investigation.
The National Security probe also concluded that Caleb Kudah’s conduct in pursuing his story was “unlawful”.
Fred Dzakpata
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