The recurrence of instant justice in the Ghanaian society in spite of public education against such action is a wake-up call on the Ghana Police Service to enforce the country’s laws to the letter, Elizabeth Agyemang, former Member of Parliament for Oforikrom, has said.
According to her, it appears some persons in Ghanaian society have decided not to heed warnings against such actions, hence the laws must be applied to bring closure to this barbaric act.
Her comments follow a young lady who was maltreated for allegedly stealing GHS 1,100 in Kejetia, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
On February 17, the lady accused of having stolen GHS1,100 ($250) was stripped naked, beaten, and paraded barefooted on the streets of Kejetia in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, by a marauding crowd of men, who repeatedly pushed her down, forced her legs open for mobile phone pictures and videos to be taken of her vagina, while others violently inserted their toes into her orifice and spanked her buttocks simultaneously in a noisy melee.
Desperate pleas by the fair-skinned alleged lady thief, whose clothes were all torn off except for her red brassiere, did not deter her Twi-speaking accusers from unleashing instant justice on her.
The irate crowd slapped, shoved, pulled and pushed the lady in every direction while groping her private parts.
In a short video that captured the whole incident, the lady is seen falling motionless and unresponsive on the street at a point, but the crowd kept hitting her and forcing her legs open.
Intermittent shouts by one or two men, who pleaded on the lady’s behalf, did not help matters as the crowd kept violently slapping and kicking the alleged thief in the vagina.
Speaking in relation to this development in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Monday February 20, Mrs Agyemang said: “We can only caution the general public to be careful with how they handle some of these things. They will need to hand over a suspected thief to the police for the person to be dealt with accordingly.
“We know it is painful when thieves rob you of your hard-earned money, but that is not a guarantee to beat or subject them to this inhumane treatment. You shouldn’t subject them to mob action.
“The police will need to enforce the laws because we have condemned mob action over and over, however they keep recurring. I think the police will have to apply the laws strictly.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
