The executive director of the West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism (WACCA), Muktar Mumuni Muqthar, has ruled out privatisation of prisons following a wave of cell breaks across the country.
Twelve inmates escaped from the Zenu-Atadeka Police Station in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality of the Greater Accra Region last week when a police officer opened the cells to place a suspect in custody. It was the third time in two months that Ghana had recorded a cell break.
Last month, two suspects escaped from police custody in Bekwai in the Ashanti Region. One of the suspects was rearrested and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Speaking with Kojo Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Tuesday, Muqthar said Ghana does not have adequate preparations in place to privatise prisons in terms of infrastructure, discipline and legislation.
Vulnerable position
“This is an idea that has been talked about for quite some time, but I do not at this moment think we are not adequately placed in terms of discipline, legislature and culture around these things,” he said.
Muqthar added: “First of all you need to ask yourself why do these things happen? It’s because prisoners exploit situations of vulnerability … We just saw how … in Ga East in January, two prisoners exploited a situation and came out very successfully without any resistance from anywhere.”
He said until the challenges of infrastructure, discipline and legislation are fixed, it will be hard to privatise the prisons.
“Sometimes things happen. You look at the issue of complicity of police officers in Ghana. Sometimes things happen with the complicity of officers within the system. And you cannot expect the private sector to do this without issues like that being handled.”
Rearrests
Meanwhile, police officers have rearrested seven out of the 12 escapees from the Zenu-Atadeka Police Station in Kpone-Katamanso, an official statement has said.
“Seven out of 12 suspects who were in the custody of the Zenu-Atadeka District Police, but escaped from lawful custody on Sunday 4 April 2021, have been rearrested,” the statement said.
It added: “Six of them have been convicted by the Ashaiman Circuit Court on their own plea on charges related to their escape from lawful custody. The Tema Police Regional Command is making all efforts to rearrest the remaining five wanted persons whose pictures are here attached and calls on the public to assist.”
The 12 inmates on remand escaped from cells on Easter Sunday when a police officer opened the cells as he placed a suspect in custody. According to reports, an inmate threw hot porridge in the police officer’s face, allowing the inmates to execute their plan successfully.
Fred Dzakpata
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