Undisciplined men in uniform

By Kofi Akordor
Discipline is the pivot of every military institution, ours not an exception. In truth, our military is held in high esteem because of the tradition of discipline it has been able to inculcate in its members, from the junior ranks to the top officer corps.
There was a time when indiscipline and lawlessness set in. Those were the days of the revolution when some disgruntled soldiers with military might and political power took the law into their own hands. Those days, thankfully, are gone and our soldiers have retraced their steps to their original mandate of protecting the territorial integrity of the country.
However, we may be moving in the wrong alley if certain dangerous traits being exhibited by some soldiers are not nipped in the bud to restore the image of the military.
Incidentally, any time some soldiers want to go to town to put on display their animalistic instincts, they do so against the police, who are under mandate to keep the peace and maintain law and order. Surprisingly, the police suffer military brutality not for personal reasons but for performing their official functions.
I have ever mentioned in this column a dangerous trend that should be curbed with all seriousness and decisively if we are not to undermine the authority of the police and create a leeway for undisciplined soldiers, in the name of group solidarity, to attack policemen on duty.
Readers may recall that on Friday, June 4, 2010 and Saturday, June 5, 2010, a group of soldiers from the Fourth Garrison went on rampage and brutalised more than a dozen policemen at various duty posts in the Kumasi metropolis, leaving three of them unconscious.
The crime of the police was that they had stopped for questioning a man who was riding an unregistered motorbike without a helmet. The rider was later identified as a soldier. We know our laws frown upon riding an unregistered motorbike and it is equally an offence to ride a motorbike without a helmet. So the police could not be faltered for doing what they did.
The soldier, we were told, drove away in anger and threatened to bring more of his colleagues to teach the policemen a bitter lesson. True to his threats, a military vehicle packed with soldiers returned to the duty post of the policemen and brutally assaulted the policemen, tearing their uniforms in the process.
The soldiers, like sharks that have smelled blood, went on the rampage, attacking every policeman/woman on sight. For two days the soldiers turned Kumasi into a huge battlefield and the police their foes and they deployed all sorts of dangerous weapons, including hammers, and left their victims unconscious.
Before the June incident, on May 20, 2010 a group of soldiers had attacked officials of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) at Suame for arresting their driver who was driving without a valid driving licence and a log book. Then, on May 22, 2010, a soldier went berserk when he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously at Asokwa, a suburb of Kumasi.
These incidents were widely reported in the media but no criminal charges were preferred against those recalcitrant soldiers. The impression given to Ghanaians was that the police and the military were like brothers and so one could misbehave against the other without criminal sanction.
Since the Military High Command and the Police Administration chose to treat those dangerous acts like a family matter, they happened again, this time in Ho when a police corporal went under attack from some soldiers of the 66 Artillery Regiment who were returning from a military exercise.
Incidents like that should not be tolerated in any way and those soldiers who fell foul of the law should not be treated like heroes.
The soldiers are now emboldened, knowing that they could visit town and attack policemen without any criminal sanction. And so they did it again in Tamale last Friday. This time eight soldiers are alleged to have attacked three policemen and a community protection assistant of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) who were doing their work directing traffic.
Two of the police officials were women. Indeed, these cannot be gallant soldiers of our proud Ghana Armed Forces who have decided to exhibit their fighting skills on poor policewomen.
According to the story, the soldiers were avenging an attack on a colleague a few days earlier. Discipline should be the hallmark of both the police and the military and it is becoming a dangerous disease for our soldiers to be slugging it out with the police in public view.
The Ghana Armed Forces is a reputable institution that must jealously guard its image and reputation. It is an institution of disciplined officers and men who have served with distinction in different parts of the world.
It will, therefore, be unfortunate if such rowdy conduct is tolerated or condoned in the name of making peace. Our Police Service may not be the best but it is what we can call our own and it is imperative that we accord it and its members our fullest respect and support.
Our soldiers cannot operate outside our laws. The laws are explicit and we cannot afford room for concessions. We rather expect soldiers to be partners in law enforcement and the last to break the law. The Tamale incident should be investigated and those found culpable made to face the penalties prescribed by law.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com