The Asawase Member of Parliament (MP) is asking the Ghana Police Service to review the mode of operation of its anti-robbery unit to prevent it from degenerating into a Nigerian replica.
Muntaka Mubarak said the unit is being used to intimidate the public for no reason, warning the #EndSARS in Nigerian backlash should warn the Service of similar repercussions.
He accused the anti-robbery unit of the police of acting contrary to the professional code of the Service citing the wrongful killing of seven persons to buttress his point.
“We are seeing what is happening in Nigeria and other parts of the world. It started like this and when the right-thinking citizenry kept quiet it grew and became what we are seeing today,” he said.
He added: “The abuse is happening in their office, they beat suspects or when they arrest people and nobody is watching they take them to a place and shoot and kill them.
“I have cited the Zongo seven because that is an independent committee saying so and these people are still in the unit,” he told the press in Kumasi a day after one of 10 of his supporters was arrested in front of his office by the unit.
The MP said the matter has already been raised in Parliament and he is expecting the Interior Ministry to come before the House to answer questions concerning the unit.
Although the anti-robbery unit is tasked to deal with incidents of robbery, the MP said their appearance rather depicts that of robbers not police.
“They are sharbily dressed, some of them with dread locks or unkempt hair. If they were not holding guns and in police vehicles you will call them deviants. Let the police tell us where they are getting the idea of policing from?” he added.
The statement comes after 10 men were on Saturday arrested by the anti-robbery unit in-front of the office of the Asawase MP.
Nine of them were released on bail on Sunday after supporters besieged the central police headquarters.
But one of them, Awudu Sulemana, popularly called Scorpion, remained in police custody accused of robbery.
The MP the said suspect has been a New Patriotic Party (NPP) activist who recently defected to the NDC and is being held for political reasons.
“This man is very responsible but after he defected from the NPP, they’ve always been after him,” he said.
Mr Mubarak believes the arrest, among others, is a clear attempt by the government machinery to harass constituents using the police.
He wants the youth at Asawase and all Zongo communities to exercise restraint as the matter goes through court.
