General News of Saturday, 4 November 2023

Source: classfmonline.com

Disband police if you don’t trust them to maintain law and order – Amidu to government

President Akufo-Addo and Martin Amidu President Akufo-Addo and Martin Amidu

Mr Martin Amidu, the former head of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), has voiced out concerns over the frequent use of the military for internal security matters.

He suggested that if the government lacks trust in the Police service to maintain law and order, then it should consider disbanding it.

Mr Amidu, who previously served as a Minister of Interior, expressed his discontent with the military's involvement in incidents where innocent civilians are subjected to harassment.

He shared his views in an exclusive interview with Valentina Owusu-Afriyie on Class 91.3 FM's mid-day news on Friday, November 3, 2023.

He criticised situations where exclusively military personnel, equipped with armoured vehicles, are deployed to confront entire villages, simply because a few individuals believed to be national security operatives took refuge in a Catholic primary school, where they were not known to anyone.

Mr Amidu was particularly disturbed that the Minister of National Security was involved in such actions.

Mr Amidu pointed out that he had experience as a security intelligence officer and was a qualified lawyer and further added that this was wrong on the part of the National Security Minister.

“You old Kan -Dapaah how can you behave this way,” he worried.

He suggested that such actions could be a means to manipulate the upcoming elections.

He believed that the government might be trying to create a climate of fear that would force people to flee, allowing the government to potentially manipulate the elections.

The government wants to put the people on tenterhooks for them to run away for it to rig the elections, he inferred.

Mr Amidu stressed his concerns about the use of the military for internal security and questioned the government's motives in such situations, particularly in the context of the upcoming elections