A member of the legal team for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has revealed that the party will today, April 19, 2023, release a press statement to expound on their concerns with the police, especially with their handling of cases.

According to him, this has become necessary following some pending cases of electoral violence which are yet to be resolved, despite years of investigations. He revealed that following a meeting which transpired between the police and leadership of the NDC and NPP, the opposition NDC will “formally respond or react to the press release of the police”.

Mr Amaliba indicated that the press release from the police after the meeting creates the impression that everything that occured with the police administration went on without any hitches. He explained that the NDC however raised some concerns about the conduct of the police, which was not captured in the press release.

Citing the Techiman-South shooting incident which occurred during the 2020 general election that led to the death of two persons, Mr Amaliba stated that he is baffled why after almost three years, the perpetrators of the Techiman south shooting incident have not been apprehended. He indicated that following the NDC’s concerns, the police wrote to the party yesterday requesting the party to present two of its members from Techiman South to meet with the police cold cases unit.

“… So, today or tomorrow, we will put together our thoughts of that meeting and make it public. However, we think that an attempt to put together a police team that will be monitoring the conduct of politicians, and thereafter if there are infraction, the police can make a follow-up, I think that is in order… Today, we have agreed to release a press statement that will outline our concerns with the police administration.”
Abraham Amaliba

Moreover, Mr Amaliba noted that since these investigations are a joint effort between the police and the political parties and modern-day policing requires shared responsibility, the police should include a legal team of each of the political parties on the police legal committee. He expressed that this is a laudable idea he hopes the police will consider.

“They should broaden it to include the legal directors of each of the political parties to assist the legal team of the police…”
Abraham Amaliba

Maintaining peace during 2024 elections

Commenting on what should be the role for both parties in supporting the police plea for peace ahead of 2024 elections, Mr Amaliba stated that it is important for the NPP and the government to know that they have a much bigger responsibility to keep the peace of this country than anybody else. This, he explained, is because the NPP is the ruling party.

“So, that must sink well for them to understand. That is the reason why we find it unfortunate if members of this government go about making statements as if they are not in government because the stakes are high and the responsibility placed on government is high. So, it is for the government to conduct itself in a way that would suggest to all of us that they are interested in keeping the peace.”
Abraham Amaliba

Furthermore, Mr Amaliba urged the police to be even-handed and show its independence of the ruling government. By this, he noted that if members of the ruling government are in violation of the law, the police must clamp down on them just as they would do same with respect to the opposition.