The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare has interdicted four more police officers in connection with recent disturbances at the Islamic Senior High School in the Ashanti Region.
The officers were reviewing CCTV footages of the chaos while giving Islamophobic commentary at the background. They are yet to be named. Their disparaging remarks about Muslims have sparked anger in the Islamic community.
“Have you seen their attitude [referring to students of the Islamic SHS]? Do you think if it was an Akan school they will behave that way?” one of the officers said in the video. Another said: “They are dirty. They are dirty! Wherever these Muslims are, there is problem…”
A delegation from the Ghana Police Service visiting the Zongo chief of Kumasi, Alhaji Umar Sulta Farouk confirmed that the four officers were under service inquiry.
Senior Police Officer, DCOP Mohammed Suraji, who doubles as the Ghana police operations commander led the delegation on behalf of the IGP.
“Such [a comment] doesn’t represent the Ghana police. So, we are here to apologise. As I speak the officers, including a chief inspector have been interdicted. They are under service inquiry for exhibiting such unprofessional conduct and we support this decision. We should treat this with the contempt it deserves,” DCOP Suraji said.
He gave an assurance to the Muslim leaders that the police respect everyone irrespective of political, religious or tribal background.
Earlier interdiction
So far seven police officers have been interdicted over the campus chaos including DCOP Kwasi Akomeah-Apraku who was removed as the deputy Ashanti regional commander.
Two other senior officers ACP George Ankomah, the Regional Operations Officer and ACP Alex Cudjoe Acquah, the Suame divisional commander were also interdicted after the IGP visited the school to sympathise with the students.
What happened?
Last Monday, students of the Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, were protesting against frequent motor traffic accidents in front of the school.
After students mounted roadblocks, police fired warning shots in a bid to scatter the crowd and restore traffic.
“The students pelted the police with stones and the police used pepper spray and fired warning shots in an attempt to disperse them,” police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi said in a statement.
“Even though nobody was hit by a bullet, the police handling of the incident was poor and fell short of our standard operating procedure on crowd control,” she added.
Ghana’s education ministry condemned the violence, assuring parents and guardians “of the safety of their wards” and saying that it “is collaborating with relevant state institutions to bring finality to the matter.”
Road accidents are frequent in Ghana due to poor road conditions and driver recklessness.
According to official records from the National Roads Safety Commission over 200 people died from road accidents between January and mid-March this year.
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