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James Agalga was Deputy Interior Minister under former President John Dramani Mahama when a colleague from the opposite aisle of the Builsa-North, Upper-East’s National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament by the name of Mr. JB Danquah-Adu, a New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa-North, in the Eastern Region, the electoral stronghold of then-Candidate Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was brutally stabbed to death in his own bedroom. Indeed, even as I write, although the criminal suspects in that catastrophic incident were arrested and promptly charged with the murder of Mr. Danquah-Adu within one week of this savagely bizarre slaying of the latter, absolutely nobody was prosecuted or brought to justice.
Then, of course, there was also the equally brutal Mafia-style execution of the Nkwanta-South District Chief Executive Officer, in the Volta Region, by the name of Mr. Peter Kenyenso, an official who had been personally appointed to his post by then-President John Mahama and was a bona fide member and key operative of the then-ruling National Democratic Congress. In this instance, as well, in which the victim was mowed down at point-blank range, absolutely no criminal suspect or suspects were promptly rounded up and brought to justice, even though an unidentified lone gunman had been clearly established to have brutally executed Mr. Kenyenso. On this occasion, too, Mr. Agalga was the Deputy Interior Minister in charge of National Security.
Well, my point here is that the man who is now castigating the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Asante Apeatu, for supposedly not being equal to the critical task of providing security for all Ghanaian citizens, has absolutely no moral authority or credibility, whatsoever, to cavalierly presume to impugn the competence or integrity of President Akufo-Addo, the man who appointed Mr. Asante Apeatu or the leadership of the ruling New Patriotic party (NPP) at large (See “Arrest And Prosecute Kennedy Agyapong for the Killing of Ahmed Hussien[sic]-Suale – Minority” Modernghana.com 1/21/19). Indeed, as I vividly recall, when then-Candidate Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo demanded to know what had been done, so far, to bring the suspects in the apparent assassination of Mr. Kenyenso to book, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, the extant Mahama-appointed Communications Minister, literally told the now-President Akufo-Addo to go to hell.
It also did not help matters that the substantive Interior Minister at the time, Mr. Mark Woyongo, would publicly and self-righteously celebrate and justify the brutal mauling of some supporters of the then-opposition New Patriotic Party by thugs recruited by the NDC-sponsored vigilante organization called the Azorka Boys, as a well-deserved act of justice for a group of “political intruders” who had absolutely no right to be present at Talensi, in the Upper-East Region, to take part in a constituency byelection. You see, I have mentioned this several times before and hereby repeat the same, that the main problem with the Anas Aremeyaw Anas-founded Tiger-Eye Private Investigations Company is scarcely one regarding the fact that the operatives are undercover detectives who have voluntarily elected to tread the treacherous and deadly waters of exposing the criminal shenanigans of Ghana’s filthy rich and most powerful figures, political and otherwise, but rather the fact that the operatives of Tiger-Eye PI would facilely presume to feed fat or casually commercialize the otherwise laudable and even heroic activities with the rather disturbing complicity of successive Ghanaian governments, including, unfortunately, the present one.
You see, undertaking a morally commendable exposé on official corruption with the sacred objective of rooting the latter out, even one that has been handsomely paid for by the government-du-jour, is one thing, if such exposé were confidentially handled and handed over to the primary sponsor who, in turn, turns over such judicially and prosecutorially fetching “smoking-gun” documents to our regular and traditional law-enforcement agencies for prompt prosecution or the swift administration of justice. On the other hand, facilely and voyeuristically converting the contents of such undercover investigations into quick-buck-making public spectacle at select movie theaters or national theaters, for that matter, promptly vitiates and patently proscribes or delegitimizes the original objective and/or the sanctity of such otherwise laudable undercover investigations or operations.
The profit-making motive immediately and luridly vulgarizes the legal significance of the entire enterprise. This legally and morally despicable aspect of the operations of the Tiger-Eye’s team of investigators is what clearly appears to have understandably and legitimately provoked the ire of such politicians and influential public figures as Messrs. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong and Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey and others. Of course, under absolutely no circumstances ought the life of Mr. Ahmed Hussein-Suale to have been so savagely taken simply because he had chosen to doggedly pursue the high-tension career of a private undercover detective or investigator. But, of course, I also beg to strongly disagree with Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas that his sort of mercenary and target-baiting journalism is necessarily standard and non-incriminating journalistic practice. Some of the practices of the Tiger-Eye investigative team are decidedly outré or out-of-bounds.
Still, it would have been equally quixotic for any of the members of the Tiger-Eye PI team to have facilely presumed that they could set up their own private and personal rules of professional engagement without naturally and/or logically facing the possibility of catastrophic consequences from some of the prime targets of their work who may have good cause, at least in their own imagination and on their own terms, to resent the deleterious and/or ruinous impact that such undercover operations may have on their fortunes, reputation and image.