POLICE MUST HEED THIS DIRECTIVE

THE clarification by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, that there is no law in Ghana which prevents women from standing as sureties in the execution of bail bonds must be one of the positive gender-sensitive declarations made by a government official.
As is obvious to everybody, suspected criminals have gone through harrowing experiences at the hands of certain policemen and even women, especially in the villages, because of this discrimination against women who, because of their connection with alleged suspects, go to the police stations to bail the suspects.
While it is difficult to fathom the genesis of this discriminatory practice, it may not be too far-fetched to trace it to our traditional and cultural practices and beliefs.
For a long time our women were considered subservient to men and not resourceful enough to stand surety, particularly when such bail bonds must be justified, which means those sureties must have money or landed property as guarantee. Women were considered not to have both money and landed property, hence the unilateral decision by some policemen to deny them the opportunity to stand surety for suspects.
It is also refreshing for the Attorney-General to set the records straight that “it is illegal for people to be made to pay for bail”, adding that bails are for free and it is, therefore, illegal for any police officer or court official to ask for payment before bail bonds are executed.
Equality before the law is one of the cardinal benchmarks of the rule of law. Indeed, Article 17, (1) of the Constitution says, “All persons shall be equal before the law,” while Article 17 (2), says, “A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status.”
The DAILY GRAPHIC is of the firm belief that when it comes to issues of people’s legal rights and liabilities, they should be resolved by recourse to the law, not by the capricious exercise of discretion. Also, the laws of the land should apply equally to all.
It is particularly painful that, in the light of the Attorney-General’s declaration, many people have had their fundamental human rights abused by some ignorant and over-zealous policemen and court officials on account of these policemen and officials misrepresenting the laws of the land. To that extent, they overstepped their bounds and exercised the powers conferred on them in an unreasonable manner.
In the opinion of the DAILY GRAPHIC, such powers have been exercised in bad faith all these years and the policemen and court officials who did that exceeded their limits.
While commending the Attorney-General for coming out to clarify a situation which has been allowed to stand for so long, even though there is no legal basis for it, we call on him to go beyond the mere declaration and walk the talk by collaborating with his counterpart at the Ministry of the Interior to issue explicit directives to policemen and women throughout the country to respect the fundamental human rights of all persons, including suspected criminals.
While we are at it, we would also like to appeal to the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police to make sure that policemen and women actually explain the offences suspects are supposed to have committed to them (suspects) in the languages they understand. For us, this is one particular grey area in our criminal justice system which must be addressed, so that suspects become aware of the charges levelled or brought against them.
We also appeal to the Chief Justice to continue with the fight to weed out corrupt officials from the courts in order to make the judiciary the bulwark against abuse of the law.