A stentorian and deeply disturbing news item that one Captain Maxwell Mahama, an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, was murdered by an overzealous group of termagants and rabid unemployed youth in the Upper Denkyira West enclave brings to the fore the issue of vigilantism in Ghana.

Vigilantism had been on the rise the last several years because of the government’s inability to sever the life-snuffing tentacles of armed robbery and lawlessness in the country.

Sadly, it has taken the death of a high-profile individual, an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, for us to understand how dangerous it is to take the law into our own hands.

If there is a lesson to learn from this abhorrent and irreversible tragedy, it is simply this: the Government of Ghana must wake up from its slumber and devote limitless resources to the elimination of armed robbery in the country.

Armed robbery became an important topic in the early 2000s when Ghanaians began to see an upsurge in violence on the streets and even in their homes.

Armed robbery descended on the nation like a swarm of wounded bees, leaving the ordinary Ghanaian puzzled and dazed, even as the government ignored the problem for many years.

Today, sophisticated networks of infernal marauders attack Ghanaians in their own homes and on the highways with impunity. In contemporary Ghana, once considered a paragon of peace and tranquility, it is very unsafe and unwise to engage in interregional travel in the dead of night.

This heightened level of armed robbery is the underlying issue that fueled the fires of brutality against Captain Maxwell Mahama, leading to his brutal death.

It is very easy to blame the termagants who first raised an alarm because they had observed that Captain Mahama, who was in plain clothes for obvious reasons, was carrying a holstered revolver.

Indeed, a large segment of the population appears to support an across-the-board arrest of the townspeople for this unspeakable tragedy. As horrendous as the death of the officer was, it is important that vigilantism be not repaid with “vigilantism” by the authorities.

The history of Ghana is replete with military usurpations of political power, and the subsequent abuses suffered by the taxpaying and longsuffering Ghanaian at the hands of these usurpers.

If history is to guide our reasoning in this situation, then the military police, which may have jurisdiction in this matter, ought to be very careful in its display of strength and authority when its investigators arrive on the ground in Denkyira Boase.

I am very sympathetic to the plight of the dead officer. I am even more sympathetic to the plight of his two young children who will grow up without a father. And I am most sympathetic to the plight of a wife who has lost a loving husband under the most horrendous of circumstances.

Yet still, I believe that human decency must be allowed to prevail as the investigations continue.

In other words, torturing the perpetrators of this dastardly act is not the answer; instead, the matter must be investigated thoroughly and those responsible given the sentences that they deserve under the law.

As seasoned and conscientious prosecutors are wont to say, it is better to free ten guilty men than to lock up one innocent man.

Thankfully, our modern Ghana is not an ochlocracy, and the rule of law does not impose mob justice. Thus, Ghanaians must learn to embrace the foregoing truth if we want to be seen as decent human beings.

In the meantime, I call on the Government of Ghana to provide ample financial assistance to the grieving family. I also call on the Government of Ghana to erect a statue in the name of the murdered officer, as a sign of respect for his services to the nation.

Finally, the Akufo-Addo-led administration must use this sad event as a turning point to relentlessly attack the scourge of armed robbery that has discombobulated the hoi polloi, for what is the sense in having elected leaders if citizens cannot count on the former to provide a stable and peaceful society for them?