I have been reading in some news outlets that Johnson Kombian, the man who is on record to have broken Tamale prisons and escaped when he was serving a prison term there has made attempt to break the Nsawam medium prisons too. The state is just keeping this Kombian guy at the risk of these prisons officers just to worry them for nothing.
Assuming this Kombian guy succeeded in breaking the jail, that is when we would have seen a tall list of prison officers who are lined up and ready to be dismissed for not doing their work well when in actual fact, there is a court ruling that this man should be killed for “crimes against humanity”. Most of these officers who are probably junior ranks would have found themselves in serious trouble and committees and boards may have been set up to investigate how the Kombian guy might have managed to escaped. As these committees and boards may be sitting comfortably in some cooled air conditioned rooms investigating how Kombian might have escaped, he might have already found himself on the streets causing havoc to unsuspecting and innocent Ghanaians. Which country koraaaa is this?
Our laws are very clear on the fate of people like Kombian as far as criminal justice is concerned. To put it in a biblical way, our laws endorse “he who draws the sword, dies by the sword”. To put it in express way and deeply rooted in the law, section 46 of Act 29/60 categorically states that “whoever commits murder shall be liable to suffer death”. Initially we advocated against instant justice and mob attacks and told the people that the courts are the only mandated bodies to find people who are suspected to have committed crimes guilty or otherwise so that justice can prevail. The court have succeeded in finding Kombian guilty after prosecution has proven beyond all reasonable doubts and here we are moving Kombian from one prison to the other wasting precious state resources on him. Very funny country like Ghana with bad security arrangements at times.
Kombian is a “death goat” who doesn’t care whether he breaks jail or not. In fact if he succeeds in breaking the jail, it will add up to his criminal CV since he is on record to have broken one in Tamale. People like Kombian who have been slapped with death penalty and knows that no amount of appeals will exonerate them, will always take the risk to break the jail anytime, at the least opportunity. It is however, to his advantage should he succeed in breaking the jail. We are just keeping this guy at the risk of the prison officers and their families for nothing. The law says he should be killed and whoever that is responsible to ensure that Kombian is killed is just being irresponsible.
It is very unfortunate we have organisations like Amnesty International and others going about advocating that death penalty should be abolished from our law books without recourse to how structures in our prisons should be improved first to contain hardened criminals like Kombian. These organizations compare prisons situations in USA, Canada, Britain, Netherlands and other developed nations to our prisons situations to here in Ghana which are very appalling. Here we are in Ghana, we are now granting bails to hardened criminals and making move to abolish death penalty because there seem to have some international pressures on us as a country without making appropriate arrangements towards the agenda these organizations are pushing us to.
For us in the police, the death of constable Prince Agyare, constable Owusu Frimpong who lost their lives as a result of attacks on them by this Kombian guy leaves a big scar in our memories. In fact is still fresh in our minds how our colleagues were murdered in cold blood and we are still in fear of attacks especially when Kombian is making attempts to break the jail. I remember how corporal Owusu who Frimpong who survived the attacks recounted his pains and neglect whilst the state looks on. The corporal said openly to hearing of the whole world how he was supposed to have been flown abroad for further treatments and surgeries but nothing has done about it. This year alone, a lot of police officers have gone down as a result of robbery attacks and fighting of other dangerous crimes and we cannot afford to have Kombian too on the streets again.
I have been told it’s the president who signs the death warrant for people like Kombian to be executed. Ever since Kombian was found guilty by the court, I keep asking myself what prevents those responsible for signing the warrants for people like Kombian who have committed heinous “crimes against humanity” be killed? My checks shows that the last time somebody was killed was in 1993 and since then all those who are on death rolls are dumped in the prisons and are allowed to be rotten by nature. Those who stay in prisons for much longer are at times given amnesty after wasting other people’s lives freely.
The behaviour of Kombian if not nibbed from the bud will continue to be a threat to the prison officers since he is likely to recruit more people to buy into his “break the jail ideology” in the prisons. When the like minded of the Kombian types grow in our prisons, the prison officers themselves know the threat that it posses to them. He will continue to be a thorn in our fresh if he is allowed to be lingering in our prisons making attempts to break the jail.
If not all, Kombian alone should be executed to decongest our prisons and also to make our prisons safer for the inmates in general and our prisons officers in particular.
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