The head of Public Relations of the Accra Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Effia Tenge, has cautioned the public against lynching suspects.
According to her, Article 41 of the 1992 Constitution, she said admonished every citizen to respect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of others and generally refrain from any acts detrimental to the welfare of the other person.
ASP Tenge said this in an interview with The Ghanaian Times in Accra, on the recent mob justice at Jirapa in the Upper West Region reported in the May 5 issue in which two suspected armed robbers were burnt to death by a mob.
She asked the public not to take the law into their own hands but rather hand over suspects to the police for investigation.
Instant mob justice, she said, should be avoided to save innocent lives, adding that suspects of mob justice would be arrested and prosecuted.
ASP Tenge said mob violence was a breach of justice, unlawful and should be condemned at all levels of the democratic discourse as an unacceptable way of seeking justice.
She said acts of lawlessness did not only have implications on the victim, but also undermined the rule of law, national security and the nation’s image abroad.
ASP Tenge said the killing of suspects affected investigations process, and if they were in a gang or syndicate, it was difficult to trace the other suspects to face the law.
She said innocent people also fell victims to such mob violence which did not help in protecting their fundamental human rights.
“In a mistaken identity incident, it is also possible that an innocent person fleeing from a scene to avoid a probable suspicious link with a crime committed, may be brutalised,” she said.
She called on all stakeholders to help the police to address the problem in the country.
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