Features
Criminals in uniform
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In Shakespeare’s tragic play, Macbeth, Duncan, the King of Scotland, declares: “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.” He makes this remark after he is told that the Thane of Cawdor has been executed for treason.
In the play, the Thane of Cawdor, a Scottish titled man, valiant for that matter, betrays his country, and the king’s trust by fighting for the Norwegians who are at war against Scotland. His compatriots capture him, and King Duncan orders his execution. It is after the order is carried out and reported to Duncan that he makes that statement.
In simple terms, the expression means one cannot read someone else’s mind by merely looking at their face. In other words, never judge a book by its cover.
The king realises that there is no way to predict betrayal. He does not see it coming as his next sentence shows: “He was a gentleman on whom I built absolute trust.”
Such is the dilemma we face as a nation. The nefarious activities of some men in uniform, have put Ghanaians on edge. These are people to whom we have entrusted our safety and security, but they have betrayed our trust and are in cahoots with criminals of all sorts to threaten us, putting both our property and very lives in danger.
Policemen and soldiers have in recent times, been arrested in very compromising situations unbecoming of their profession. They have joined the underworld. Like the Thane of Cawdor, they are sent to wage war against criminals, but they go and join them to do us harm.
It occurs all over the world with varying degrees. There have been reported cases of policemen in the UK abducting, raping, and murdering women. In the US, a policeman recently killed his own wife, a fellow police officer, following what is believed to be a domestic violence incident.
However, criminals in uniform abound more in Africa than in other parts of the world. And some of the reports are frighteningly shocking. For example, in the 1980s, in Nigeria, the name of a very prominent senior police officer, DSP George Iyamu, popped up as the main facilitator of the most deadly and dreaded criminal gang in the country, led by Lawrence Anini, a very young notorious armed robber in his late 20s.
Together with his gang, Anini terrorised most parts of Nigeria, especially, Benin City in the old Bendel State which has now been split into Edo State and Delta State.
The clan began as carjackers before including robbing buses on highways. In no time, bank robberies became their preferred option with the cruel massacre of victims.
They committed gruesome murders including killing a lot of policemen who stood in their way. Within just about four months, the group had killed close to a dozen policemen, including two who attempted to stop Anini at a barrier, not to mention civilians.
The fearsome robber held sway over all he surveyed and was a law unto himself. In fact, he called himself Anini the law and was so elusive and dreaded even though he was living right under the nose of the police.
It is said that even if he approached a police barrier, all he had to say was: “I am Anini the law.” And come and see speed! Instead of attempting to arrest him, they would just flee for cover, and allow him free passage.
Anini even had the audacity to draft a proposal and gave it to the military Head of State at the time, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, about collaborating with his group of felons and treating them with respect to bring peace to the country, especially, Benin City.
The Newswatch magazine, in its October 27, 1986 publication, listed the six conditions Anini gave for peace to return to Benin city in an unedited form as follows:
“No more prosecution of innocent armed robbers; a stop to collusion between the police and the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers, and with members of the Ogboni cult; no more harassment of market women returning from their work; the ‘abolition of the collection of 50k-N5 [by the Highway Patrol], equal treatment for everybody; and fair treatment for all legitimate drivers by the police.”
Ironically, Anini, while still committing atrocities, posed as an advocate and deliverer of the suffering masses of Nigeria, including his fellow criminals whom he described as “innocent armed robbers.”
His reign of terror which peaked between August and December, 1986, was so bloody and widespread that he was even discussed at National Security Council meetings chaired by General Babangida himself who furiously posed the question to the IGP, Mr. EtimInyang: “My friend, where is Anini.”
General Babangida ordered a massive manhunt for Anini and his cohorts. A crack team of policemen, from outside Anini’s home region of Bendel State, operating under tight secrecy, hounded them, combing every nook and cranny of his state, especially Benin City, the capital, which the group was said to be using as its operational headquarters.
The effort finally paid off. Finally, on December 3, 1986, the team captured Anini in the company of six girlfriends in Benin City. Some other members of the group were also nabbed at different locations.
While in custody, Anini made some startling revelations, disclosing the identities of six police officers, including DSP George Iyamu, as their accomplices who tipped them off about plans to get them. Iyamu, the most senior among the officers, was also said to have provided guns and other logistics for the Anini bunch.
On March 29, 1987, Anini who was just over 26 years, was executed by firing squad, together with his bandits, after being convicted and sentenced to death for armed robbery by a High Court. DSP Iyamu and four other policemen also suffered the same fate.
Thirty-five years on, another top cop, Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, widely touted as a potential IGP, has fallen from grace to grass after being implicated in a cocaine deal with a notorious internet scammer and drug dealer.
In Ghana, when a spate of attacks on bullion vans hit recently, the police had good cause to look everywhere except within their own ranks. After all, the police are the trusted ones to go after the crooks!
But it turned out to be all wrong. Duncan’s words came into play: “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.” About six servicemen who mourned the death of a colleague cruelly murdered in one of the bullion van attacks, turned out to be shedding crocodile tears.
They were the very criminals the police were looking for. Two of them died inexplicably in a shooting incident when the police went with them after their civilian accomplices. Four others are on remand while their trial goes on,.
In another development, the M.C.E. of New Juaben South, Mr Isaac Appaw Gyasi, on June 21, 2022, was reported to have revealed that some moles among the security personnel in his municipality, have been countering efforts to arrest sex traffickers and commercial sex kingpins by leaking information on operational strategies adopted for the arrest and prosecution of the criminals.
In recent times, sex trafficking and commercial sex business are getting out of hand in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Capital, with reports alleging that the municipality has become the destination of choice for Nigerians and other foreign nationals engaged in the illicit activities.
With the connivance of Ghanaian accomplices, those foreigners lure young girls into believing that decent and well-paying jobs are available in Ghana only for them to be pushed into those practices.
The irony is that while the new police administration under C.O.P Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, is making strenuous attempts to reduce crime significantly, traitors within the service are thwarting these efforts by conniving with criminals.
New ways of policing, hitherto unheard of in Ghana, have now been introduced into the service. This includes the establishment of a K-9 (canine) Unit whose officers and trained security dogs are stationed at vantage points across Accra for operational patrols.
This new way of policing forms part of the Proactive Preventive Policing Strategy and it is aimed at increasing the visibility of personnel, improving intelligence gathering, tracking of contraband goods, and improving upon other aspects of criminal investigations. Plans are underway to extend the strategy to other regions in the near future.
Another innovation is the horse patrol in various areas as part of the visibility strategy to nip crime in the bud. Besides, Regional, Divisional, and District Police Commanders across the country, on Monday, June 20, 2022, embarked on an intensive community engagement nationwide with a view to bringing policing to the doorsteps of Ghanaians as well as gathering intelligence.
Very lofty ideas but with the moles as recalcitrant as ever, what is the future of policing in Ghana in particular, Africa as a whole, and the world in general?
The programmes demand trustworthy security personnel to succeed. But, again, “there’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.” For that reason, let there be foolproof background checks before new officers are enlisted into the Ghana Police Service.
For those criminals already in uniform, give them no rest. Hound them and flush them all out. They must be put out of service. Period!
Contact:teepeejubilee@yahoo.co.uk
By Tonny Prempeh
“A woman who abandons her baby in a dustbin at Kasoa Lorry Station is not always a wicked woman. Sometimes, she is a wounded woman whose mind has broken, whose family has rejected her, and whose society has left her with only one terrible option: disappear or be disgraced.”
That is the hard truth Ghana must hear.
In the last 10 days alone, our nation has been confronted with the same painful headline, twice.
Case 1 – Kasoa Main Lorry Station, Central Region: A newborn baby girl was found abandoned inside a dustbin at the public toilet of the Kasoa Main Station. A woman who went to use the facility discovered the infant and raised an alarm. Commercial drivers and bystanders quickly retrieved the baby and rushed her to the Kasoa Polyclinic for emergency medical care.
Case 2 – Asante Bekwai, Ashanti Region: On Thursday morning, August 20, 2026, a two-week-old neonate was reportedly abandoned by an unknown nursing mother at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region. Residents who came across the child raised the alarm. The baby was admitted to the Bekwai Government Hospital as police commenced investigations.
Let me be clear from the start: Newborn abandonment is wrong. It is dangerous. It is criminal. And it can kill. This article does not excuse it. But if we only arrest and shame, we will never stop it. We must treat the root, not just punish the fruit.
What exactly is newborn abandonment? – The two definitions
The Legal Definition: Under Ghana’s Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), Section 96, and the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560), abandonment of a child under 12 years is a criminal offence. It is classified as exposure and abandonment, punishable as a misdemeanor or felony. The law sees the mother as a perpetrator.
The Psychological definition: In clinical textbooks, newborn abandonment is defined as the intentional, permanent relinquishment of all parental rights, care, and responsibilities over an infant within the first 28 days of life without making formal, legal arrangements for care.
To understand this crisis properly, we must not confuse it with child abandonment. Newborn abandonment happens within 0-28 days of life, often driven by acute panic, denial of pregnancy, or postpartum psychosis where the attachment bond never formed. Child abandonment, on the other hand, involves toddlers to teenagers where a bond existed but collapsed over time due to chronic poverty, family breakdown, or parental burnout. One is an acute crisis of the first month; the other is a chronic breakdown over years. Both are harmful, but they need different interventions.
Psychologically, newborn abandonment is the ultimate rupture of the primary attachment bond. Think of a 19-year-old university student who secretly gives birth alone in her hostel room, wraps the crying baby in a polythene bag, and drops it at a refuse dump at midnight. That is not just a crime scene; it is a scene of extreme panic and psychological dissociation.
Why would a mother carry a baby for 9 months and then abandon it?
This is the question every Ghanaian asks. If you wanted to abandon it, why not abort? The answer is deeply psychological:
1. The psychodynamics of denial of pregnancy: This is a profound defense mechanism, not a lie. The mother’s subconscious mind completely rejects the reality of the pregnancy. She does not gain weight normally, feels no kicks, does not seek antenatal care, and genuinely convinces herself she is not pregnant until sudden, shocking labour pains take her by surprise in a toilet or bedroom.
2. Fantasy of a dissolving problem: This is called cognitive avoidance. She believes “my boyfriend will come back,” “my mother will forgive me,” or “something miraculous will happen before birth.” So she waits, paralyzed, until the baby is here.
3. Barriers to safe abortion: Deep religious guilt, moral anxiety, fear of dying from a back-alley abortion, lack of money for a safe procedure, and family laws force her to carry to term even when she feels incapable.
4. The shock of reality and acute panic: Upon delivery, the physical presence and crying of the newborn shatters all denial. Confronted with immediate exposure, shame, and reality, her brain enters a trauma response — “fight, flight, or freeze.” For many, it becomes “flight” — physically escape the threat of exposure to survive socially. That is why babies are left in places where others will find them -lorry stations, churches, hospitals.
Source:
Counselor Prince Offei, CPAC’s founder, is a leading Mental Health Professional, Marriage Counsellor, Author, ADR Expert/Arbitrator, and Spectator Newspaper Columnist. He writes on relationships, marriage, parenting, special needs support, and their connection to mental health. For therapy, counselling, or enquiries, contact Counselor Prince & Associates Consult (CPAC) in Accra on 0559850604 / 0551428486.
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Features
Environmental stewardship is an act of worship: The Islamic response to climate change, environmental degradation (Part 4)
The environmental consequences of illegal mining have reached alarming levels in Ghana. Several major rivers, including the Pra, Ankobra, Offin, Birim and Tano, have experienced significant pollution from illegal mining activities, increasing the cost and complexity of water treatment while threatening the availability of potable water for millions of citizens (Water Resources Commission, 2024; Ghana Water Limited, 2024). These developments underscore the urgent need for stronger environmental governance and collective action.
Islam equally emphasises accountability in governance. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught that every leader is responsible for those under his or her authority (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7138; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1829). This principle extends to public officials entrusted with environmental regulation, traditional authorities responsible for communal lands, mining companies, local assemblies, and community leaders. Environmental protection cannot succeed
where accountability is absent.
At the same time, addressing galamsey requires more than law enforcement. Sustainable solutions must tackle the underlying socio-economic realities that drive individuals into illegal mining. Many young people are motivated by unemployment, poverty, and limited economic opportunities. Islamic principles of social justice therefore call for the creation of alternative livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, vocational training, responsible small-scale mining under strict environmental standards, entrepreneurship, and skills development. Environmental protection and economic empowerment should not be viewed as competing priorities but as complementary goals that promote human dignity and national development.
Faith communities also have an indispensable role to play. Mosques, churches, schools, traditional councils, and civil society organisations possess significant influence in shaping public attitudes and behaviours. Imams, in particular, should consistently remind congregations that wealth acquired through actions that destroy communities and Allah’s creation cannot be regarded as a blessing. Religious education should cultivate environmental ethics alongside spiritual devotion, reinforcing the understanding that protecting rivers, forests, and farmlands is an expression of gratitude to Allah and a fulfilment of the trust of Khalifah.
Ultimately, the struggle against galamsey is more than a campaign to protect natural resources; it is a struggle to uphold justice, preserve human dignity, and honour the trust that Allah has placed upon humanity. Lasting solutions will require strong governance, responsible citizenship, sustainable economic opportunities, and renewed moral leadership. Only when these elements
work together can Ghana safeguard its natural heritage for present and future generations.
Water conservation, waste management and sustainable development: Practical expressions of Islamic stewardship
Religious education should cultivate environmental ethics alongside spiritual devotion, reinforcing the understanding that protecting rivers, forests, and farmlands is an expression of gratitude to Allah and a fulfilment of the trust of Khalifah.
Ultimately, the struggle against galamsey is more than a campaign to protect natural resources; it is a struggle to uphold justice, preserve human dignity, and honour the trust that Allah has placed upon humanity. Lasting solutions will require strong governance, responsible citizenship, sustainable economic opportunities, and renewed moral leadership. Only when these elements
work together can Ghana safeguard its natural heritage for present and future generations.
Islam is not merely a religion that condemns environmental destruction; it also provides practical guidance for preserving and sustaining the natural world. Through its teachings on moderation, cleanliness, conservation, and responsible consumption, Islam cultivates an environmental ethic that remains remarkably relevant to contemporary challenges such as water scarcity, pollution, waste management, and climate change. These teachings encourage Muslims to become
responsible custodians of Allah’s creation in both private and public life.
Water conservation: A sacred responsibility
Water occupies a unique position in Islam as the source of life and an essential element of worship. Allah says, “And We made from water every living thing. Then will they not believe?” (Qur’an 21:30, Sahih International). This verse reminds believers that water is not merely an economic resource but a divine blessing upon which all living creatures depend. The importance of water is further reflected in Islamic acts of worship. Muslims perform ablution (wudu) before the five daily prayers and ritual bathing (ghusl) under prescribed circumstances.
Yet, despite its central role in purification, Islam strongly discourages wastefulness. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once advised one of his companions not to waste water while performing ablution, even when using water from a flowing river (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 425). This timeless guidance establishes the principle that abundance does not justify extravagance.
Conservation remains a religious obligation regardless of the apparent availability of natural resources.
This Prophetic teaching carries profound implications for contemporary Ghana. Illegal mining has severely polluted many rivers, increasing the cost of water treatment and limiting access to safe drinking water for numerous communities. Climate change has also intensified seasonal variability in rainfall, placing additional pressure on freshwater resources (IPCC, 2023). Against this
backdrop, conserving water is no longer simply an environmental preference—it is a moral imperative grounded in Islamic teaching.
Water conservation should therefore become a shared responsibility among households, educational institutions, industries, and places of worship. Simple practices such as repairing leaking pipes, harvesting rainwater, protecting riverbanks, avoiding contamination of water bodies, and promoting efficient irrigation contribute to safeguarding one of Allah’s greatest blessings. Every effort to preserve water is an investment in public health, food security, and the
wellbeing of future generations.
Unfortunately, indiscriminate disposal of refuse remains a significant challenge in many communities. Plastic waste clogs drainage systems, contributes to flooding during the rainy season, pollutes rivers and beaches, and threatens marine ecosystems. Open burning of waste further degrades air quality and poses serious health risks, particularly for children and the elderly (UNEP,2024).
The author is Chief Imam of Katamanso Municipal and Certified Counsellor and Governnace Expert.
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