Some few weeks ago, I was preparing to go to bed early so I would wake up and work deep in the night like the ‘‘owl’’ I have become.

I had a call from the Upper West staff officer of the Ghana Police Service, ASP Edmund Adinkrah Nyamekye who also doubles as the Acting Upper West Public Relations Officer of the service inviting me to come for assignment the following day at the renovated police canteen in Wa.

The assignment was to cover the opening of the new look police canteen which hitherto in the early 90s was the fun ground for young men and women in the Wa township and it was christened POLCA.

 I remember growing up as a child, we used to go there in the night to buy some sweet ‘‘bofrote.’’ or dougnut. One would cry to the mother the whole night if she doesn’t give money to go and buy them the following day. An otherwise healthy relationship can be ruined if a man fails to buy the delicacy for his better half.

However, getting to the dying embers of the 90s POLCA started to collapse. The place became dilapidated to the extent that the wood which served as the fence got rotten. The roof of the building was ripped off. The bofrote seller vanished into thin air.

I was in two minds when I had the call from ASP Nyamekye. Having enjoyed that delicacy with passion at POLCA,  I thought it will be wrong for me to turn my back on covering such an important facility that somehow helped to shape my life. But I also asked myself is covering the opening of a Police canteen what we need now? At a point, I thought there wouldn’t be anything compelling at the event. So I just quickly thanked ASP Edmund Nyamekye for the invitation but told him I wouldn’t be able to make it because it was not newsworthy.

Crime in the region especially, in the Wa municipality is at an all time high. Beer bars, pubs and food joints are closing before 10:00 pm. People living in the municipality are living in constant fear because you never know who will be the next victim.

The very day the police were preparing to open the canteen to the public, armed robbers were having a field day at the eastern corridor of the region. They shot a couple of the passengers, seized money and above all subjected them to several inhuman treatments. Two days after the incident, a man whose name was only given as Yakubu was shot dead on the Wa-Charia road. Two weeks after that gory incident an aspiring Assembly Man from Eggu electoral area Robert Salia was shot dead by suspected robbers.

The police in a knee jerk approach to the situation, did a swoop at K.J. Spot, a popular drinking spot in Wa and arrested 15 suspected criminals in Wa. Only God knows the number of suspects remaining in their cells after the screening.  

Exactly a week today, a driver of Obiri lotteries, Martin Alanga Jua was shot dead between Bussie and Fian in the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa district. To date no single arrest has been made.

Motorbikes are stolen every passing hour in the Wa municipality. One can’t take his or her eyes away from the motorbike once you alight. People are attacked at knife and gun point in broad day light and their motorbikes taken away from them.

 The Wa police themselves were not spared the ordeal. A handful of seized motorbikes kept at the middle of the police station were stolen. Surprisingly, these motorbikes have 24 hour police guard and yet the motorbikes miraculously disappeared from the police yard. One then wonders whether we are really safe. If motorbikes kept at a supposedly safe custody of a police station will get stolen what then happens to the ordinary person who struggles to own this machine?

It is therefore not surprising that when these suspected thieves are arrested; they are released within a blink of an eye with the alleged connivance of some officers. Two police officers who were caught red-handed as part of the motorbike theft syndicate were only transferred to Nadowli and Jirapa respectively to continue the thievery in other villages.  Isn’t it palpably laughable?

As I write this piece, a colleague who works as a regional correspondent for Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, William Owusu Boateng was attacked on Sunday night in his room. He was inflicted with several machete wounds and his brand new motorbike he bought 24 hours earlier was taken away. He reported the matter to the Wa police in the morning but nothing concrete has been done about it.

It is therefore not surprising that the issue of mob justice has gained currency in the municipality because residents here have no scintilla of trust for the police service. Will you believe that yours truly was also a victim to the motorbike theft case? After i reported the case, a Police Corporal told me point blank that there is little they could do about the situation and sought to suggest to me names of some people in town from whom I could look for the motorbikes. I took two numbers and made the call and they both picked. One of them asked me to bring two hundred Ghana Cedis for them to buy petrol to look for the motorbike for me. Two days after I gave him the money, he saw me riding a new motorbike in front of the police station. He stopped and asked why I have not waited for them to look for the motorbike for me and rather went and bought a new one.

‘‘Seeing you with this motorbike, the suspected thieves will never bring the stolen motorbike,’’ he added.

I told him that ‘‘my oral contract with you is to bring me my motorbike, whether I bought a new motorbike or not, it is none of your business. If you can’t get my motorbike for me, let me have my two hundred Ghana Cedis,’’ I fumed.

He went home and brought the money ending the contract and my association with him.

Several people in the municipality have similar stories about their encounter with these so-called motor retrieval gangs and they are well recognised by them. Life in Wa is becoming like hell and there is no where you will go without you hearing people talking about the activities of these hoodlums in the community. People who are supposed to be behind bars are the ones bailing others at the police station. It is even alleged that suspected criminals on daily basis hold meetings with some top rank police officers in the municipality after close of work.

I admit that the rise in criminal activities in the municipality cannot be solely blamed on all policemen because there are equally good ones. However, their effort to nip crime in the bud has attracted strong opposition from their colleagues on the other side.

‘‘Just arrest one or two suspects and you see within a blink of an eye, the number of suspected hoodlums and some police officers who will storm the police station seeking for bail for him,’’ one police officer confided in me

Some also went further and told me the frustrations they go through to apply the brakes on these social miscreants from their colleagues whenever ever any of them infringed on the law.

It is really sad that the days when one could easily misplace or forget personal effects in a public space within the community and return several days to retrieve his belongings have given way to terror.

I quite remember in the early 90s when the Upper West hosted the National Inter- Schools and Colleges Sports Festival in Wa. Officials from the Ashanti region misplaced their monies and other personal effects at the Wa Sports Stadium. For three days, they were left untouched at the stadium until the officials came back. The Ashanti regional delegation to the festival was shocked to the marrow and they praised the people.

Today, it is sad to say that the situation is different. People are even following you with guns and knives to take personal effects away from you.

The aforementioned activities of these hoodlums have given the region a bad name and scaring potential investors away from the region and appropriate steps must be taken to put a stop to the activities of these marauding robbers. People in the municipality have lost confidence in the police service to fight crime and that explained the series of mob justice that has now become the order of the day.

People are of the view that the Ashanti regional police commander, Kofi Nathan Boakye should be brought into the region to flush out these criminals but I don’t believe it. I believe that if the Upper West regional commander of the Ghana Police Service DCOP Kwesi Mensah-Duku wakes up from his slumber and works with the same speed at which he used to renovate the canteen, crime will be reduced to the barest minimum.

There are rumours of alleged corrupt acts at the Region's Criminal Investigation Department. Investigations are hardly conducted into cases! Have we not heard of the numerous arrests made by the department and yet little or no prosecutions have been secured. One could easily predict the outcome of a case involving a suspected thief or armed robber arrested by the Wa Police. They need to work above themselves to gain the confidence of the public.

By this piece, I am not entirely blaming the upsurge of criminal activities in the region on the police. The judiciary have also been just as lackadaisical. Some officials of the judiciary are part and parcel of the problem which I will write on later. However the greatest blame should go to the residents who are part and parcel of the problem due to the subculture of Tejaa bunyeni (we are all one).  

Our eyes are red now and it is only when we are secured and at peace that we look for food and water to quench your thirst and hunger respectively. Mr. Police commander, we need more than a canteen, period!   

The writer, Rafiq Salam, is a broadcast journalist with Joy 99.7FM. His email address is rafiqsalam1@gmail.com