Bono chiefs pleading with the President to have the Police restore the full complements of police services in Sunyani, when they called on him a couple of days ago, prompts a few yet important questions.
Were such services really suspended, and why? What have been the repercussions of the withdrawal, if at all?
In one of the routine security briefings, the President told his guests, when they called on him at the Presidency that, the IGP said only counter services were suspended, not patrol and other routine police duties.
It stands to reason that even with the withdrawal, just a fragment of the full complement of police duties, the chiefs and people of the Bono Region are feeling insecure. We never appreciate the importance of a service until it is withdrawn. We take such services for granted and only remember their importance only when they are suspended as in the case of the police counter service in Sunyani.
A few months ago, the death of a young man sparked violence in Bono when police installations were targets of attack by mostly youth of Sunyani, who suspected foul play in the death of the young man.
A police station was vandalised and the lives of police officers threatened by youth who were baying for their blood.
The Police Administration, which has the responsibility to protect the lives of its personnel could not have folded their arms under the circumstances. Suspending the counter services was the most appropriate response to the bedlam which had visited Sunyani.
There is no denying the fact that the traditional authorities were unable to control the irate youth, a sad observation.
We would have expected that the counsel of our traditional authorities should carry the necessary weight to restore order in the face of the chaos which Sunyani was turned into.
The cost of policelessness is expensive as evidenced in the insecurity which the chiefs and people of Sunyani and perhaps beyond, are enduring currently.
The Police Administration could not have abandoned Sunyani to its fate even as the lives of its personnel were threatened. Suspension of counter services where normal reports of civil and criminal matters are reported was only tactical, nowhere a total withdrawal of policing which could have been unheard of.
Now that it would not be long before the restoration of the full complement of police services in Sunyani, it would be necessary to remind the chiefs about the counsel of the President who condemned the irrational attack of police stations. Let them admonish the youth not to return to that path of irresponsibility anymore.
Responding to such attacks by the police can result in casualties which is a situation we would not like to countenance.
Let us be civil and responsible in the face of consequences. No matter the situation, living without the services of the police is an unwelcome development, as it opens all our flanks to insecurity, the consequences of which can be fatal.
