“How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?” -Carson McCullers
Bismark Bebli, a former staff of The Chronicle and until recently the acting editor of General Telegraph, an Accra-based newspaper met his untimely death in a ghastly accident at Kasoa in the Central Region last Friday, after he was hit by a car in front of Kasoa police station.
According to reports, a policeman had stopped Bismark to inspect his car papers when the driver of an Urvan mini bus approaching them failed his brakes and ended up running over both Bismark and the policeman.
However, the sad aspect of this tragedy was that while the police officer and the journalist were both gasping for life and lying in a pool of blood, when the police got to the scene of the gory accident, they quickly attended to the police personnel by rushing him to the hospital, leaving behind the journalist to his fate.
The policeman, who was said to have sustained minor injuries was rushed to the Korle Bu Teaching hospital, whilst the journalist who was in very critical condition was abandoned and left to die.
Meanwhile, the police officer is responding to treatment at an undisclosed health facility whilst Bismark Bebli is Dead , leaving behind triplets, less than 8 years of age, and a wife.
After the police had rescued one of their own and left the journalist to his fate, some good Samaritans later rushed him to the Justab Hospital for medical treatment, before he was referred to the Kasoa Polyclinic, but it was too little too late, as he was pronounced dead.
According to the Police Service Act, 1970 (ACT 350) the functions of the Police Service include;
(1) It shall be the duty of the Police Service to prevent and detect crime, to apprehend offenders,
and to maintain public order and the safety of persons and property.
(2) Every police officer shall perform such functions as are by law conferred upon a police officer and shall obey all lawful orders and directions in respect of the execution of his office
which he may receive from his superiors in the Police Service.
The function of maintaining the safety of persons; regardless of race, gender, class or religion was lost on the personnel of the Kasoa police station on Friday January 13, 2017 at about 1:15 pm when the accident occurred.
For us at The Chronicle, whilst we would not want to rush into making any conclusions, we wish to impress on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to immediately order an investigation into the needless death of Bismark Bebli and the culprits appropriately dealt with.
We also wish to call the attention of the leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) not to allow this act of negligence, leading to the untimely death of one of their own to be swept under the carpet and the perpetrators left to go scot free.
How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind to seek justice for the departed?
Bismark Bebli’s death must not be in vain.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.