Social advocacy group, FixTheCountry Movement, has called on the Ghana Police Service to speedily investigate the recent shooting incident at the Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi.
The group also urged the Police Service to end the increasing incidents of violent crowd control.
According to the group, it is worried about the increased number of police-civilian brutalities, especially on various secondary and tertiary campuses across the country.
Dwelling on the recent incident at Abrepo in the Ashanti Region and other campuses, the Movement stressed the need for the Police to employ calmer and friendlier approaches in dealing with the public, especially in instances of rowdy disturbances.
“We note that the incidence of security forces entering second-cycle and tertiary educational institutions with live ammunition and resorting to unjustified use of violence against minors or young adults has now become a routine part of law enforcement culture in this country.
“We are disturbed about the extent to which guns and the use of live ammunition have become a normalized part of law enforcement in Ghana. We reiterate our calls for persistent violence and killings of demonstrators to be properly investigated and for the end of this culture of Police brutality,” portion of the statement read.
It continued: “We consider that only consequences for unlawful conduct can incentivize true reform in policing methods in Ghana. To end the culture of brutality and impunity, we must hold persons responsible for these acts of violence accountable.”
Having stated their reservations, the FixTheCountry Movement itemised the following proposals in dealing with the menace:
a. An independent civilian expert body with prosecutorial powers be established to probe allegations of violence by members of the security agencies.
b. An immediate end to the deployment of military personnel in civilian crowd control situations, including a complete ban on the deployment of the Ghana Armed Forces into primary, secondary or tertiary educational establishments in connection with any demonstration by students.
c. An immediate end to the use of live ammunition in protest by unarmed civilians, and in crowd control situations; and in particular there should be a complete ban on the use of guns or live ammunition in student crowd control activities in any primary, secondary or tertiary educational establishment.
d. An immediate putting in place of operating procedures on public order policing, which are consistent with human rights and the respect for human dignity”.
Below is the full statement: