Ranking Member of Parliament’s defence and interior committee, James Agalga, has revealed that government is excessively swift in deploying military to handle internal security matters in the country.

According to him, the military should be the last resort when the police are overwhelmed in dealing with a matter. He indicated that the problems that erupted in Manya Krobo over residents resistance to ECG’s prepaid installations in the community is “one that clearly overwhelmed the police” for which reason the military needed to be deployed.

Nonetheless, Mr Agalga noted that acts of vandalism is not an issue which should necessarily overwhelm the police service. He explained that often times when the military is deployed, it is reckoned as attempts by the state to use the military to intimidate, harass and use brute force to contain such situation.

“I do not think that acts of vandalism should overwhelm our police service. By their training, I think our police are able to contain some of those riotous behaviour by people. We are too quick to deploy the military. I must confess the military itself is not happy with the development. At the least provocation, we are quick to call in the military, even when the police themselves are able to deal with the situation, we bypass the police and bring in the military.”
James Agalga

The ranking Member of Parliament’s defence and interior committee highlighted that the aftermath of military intervention in most cases is not “palatable” when they are brought in to partake in policing duties. Citing the declaration of results during the election period in Techiman, Mr Agalga stated that there were deaths, questioning whether it was appropriate to deploy the military to handle “misunderstanding” in such circumstance.

“Clearly, the police were not overwhelmed, but we brought in the military for reasons best known to us and we saw the results… So, I think we need to be very clear in our minds that most often, the military is deployed in circumstances that even do not require their immediate deployment. What we cannot deny is when the police is overwhelmed, even if it’s disaster situation we call in the military to intervene because we believe they are more resourced… But we need to be circumspect in the way and manner we deploy our military.”
James Agalga

Government urged to resource police

Mr Agalga expressed the need for government to review how and when it deploys the military to take over policing duties in the country. He noted that the orientation of the police vis-à-vis the orientation of the military is different. As such, it will be prudent for government to use the police to handle internal operations, however, when things get out of hand, the military can be opted for.

“So, we have been urging government to resource the police, train them in a way that makes it possible to deal with some of the internal security challenges we have had in this country. Look, the police are very capable of dealing with some of the challenges we record in our country if we give them the appropriate training and resources… Let us resource the police [and] let us have confidence in them to deliver…”
James Agalga