There we go again; the hypocritical and selective justice resorted to by the Ghana Prison Services to discipline if not to mistreat Ken Kuranchie, the editor of the Accra Daily Searchlight newspaper.
Ken has been sentenced to ten days imprisonment for his editorial review of how he perceives Sammy Awuku to have been unfairly treated by the Supreme Court. Sammy Awuku had posited the Supreme Court was being hypocritical and selective when they cited only Daily Guide for rebuke amid many newspapers and commentators on same subject of a box of pink sheets allegedly finding its way into Justice Atuguba's office.
I am not going to discuss the sentence, its merits and demerits as the harm is already done. However, I find the motive behind the constant shuttling of Ken from one prison to the other very worrying, abusively mischievous and absolutely unprofessional. I am sure the prison services are not acting on the usual "order from above" nonsense to trample on the human rights of Ken Kuranchie, a hero in the making in the eyes of many a sensible Ghanaian.
A prisoner can only be moved from one prison to the other, but not as at the rate of Ken's, on the following reasons:
1. When the prisoner's life is established to be in danger in the prison where he is to be moved from. When his prison inmates are intent on killing him, beating him, forcibly sodomizing him etc. then his life is in imminent danger.
2. When the prisoner is due for probation to assess he/she is no longer dangerous to the public pending their release from jail within weeks or days, they can be moved from severe to a less severe prison environment.
3. When the prison officers are compelled by time pressure to rush the prisoner to the nearest prison prior to arranging to get him/her to their final prison destination the next day or two.
Does that of Ken fall within any of the mentioned categories? I hope not. He has since his prison sentence passed on Tuesday, 2 July 2013, been sent to Nsawam, and moved to Ho and now to an unknown destination. Why should his movements and destinations be shrouded in secrecy if the Ghana Prison Service is not up to some mischief of some sort?
I am taking this opportunity to warn the Ghana Prison Services should anything untoward happen to Ken Kuranchie, all discerning Ghanaians shall deal drastically with them. We are fed up with the nonsensicalities of viewing and interpreting everything in opaque partisanship lenses to suit the roguish government and party in place at the moment. We, the Ghanaians resident abroad will fight for not only our rights but that of our compatriots back home by taking on any institution that behaves roguishly.
We were in Ghana during the AFRC/PNDC revolutions when important personalities like Victor Owusu, Krobo Edusei, only but to mention a few, were taken into prison. They came out almost in vegetative state, never regained their health and died. They were surely fed intentionally contaminated food, drugs, etc. to slow down their health if not to speed up their deaths. I hope they will not do the same to Ken Kuranchie.
When Dr Bilson was once imprisoned during one of the Military regimes era, did they not seek to inject him with medication meant for treating horses when he fell ill? His professional knowledge as an astute medical doctor with PhD in the field saved him from being either intentionally or wrongly injected with that drug to cause his death or deterioration in his health. He rejected the medication being administered to him.
I suggest Ken does not eat any food or drug presented to him by the prison officers. He should be mindful of what he eats, drinks and sleeps on.
All the reasons so far offered by the Prison Services for his incessant movements from one prison to the other without disclosing his new destinations are with all intent mischievous.
Being one of the wise ones from Kumawu/Asiampa, I shall not sit by while political nonsense crops into every facet of the Ghanaian life to ruin our dear nation. I shall be the first one to condemn the prison services for their abuse of power as hereby made evident. I am sure the Supreme Court did not order for Ken to be moved around as part of his prison sentence. I have by this publication served a warning notice to the Prison Service for what I see as an illegality in the process of administering service in the name of keeping criminals and prisoners away from the public to ensure the safety and health of the public.
Rockson Adofo