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| Policemen take their position at a Kotoko-Hearts game |
Sometimes I am afraid of the Police. My
fear isn’t the fear of arrest. It’s rather the fear of the needless and usually
brute force they apply in addressing very simple matters like what happened at
the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium last Saturday, when Kumasi Asante Kotoko hosted Inter
Allies on match day 26 of the First Capital Plus Premier League.
A reporter from Asempa FM, Frank
Agyam was wounded by a Police officer for no good reason. Prior to that, Joy
FM’s reporter, Benedict Owusu had also been heckled by the Police in his
attempt to seek explanations as to why reporters were being denied access to
players and coaches after the game. One officer (named withheld) categorically
told me that journalists will be roughened if they dare challenge the Police.
That statement amazed me. I
looked at the officer’s name tag intently and quietly walked away. Noticing
that I had taken a good look at his tag, he re-called me to “properly” explain
himself. There was nothing to explain, I told him. Eventually, no journalist
was allowed access to the two teams and there was no organised post-match conference
for the media.
Saturday wasn’t the first time
Police officers at the Accra Stadium had acted the way they did. There have
been numerous instances of Police heckling at the stadium and I have always wondered
why the Police act in that manner. It is as if the officers are always in a
hurry to leave so they prevent journalists seeking to interview players and
coaches from getting to where the team buses are packed since that would
require that they wait till the interview sessions are over before they escort
the teams out of the stadium.
Given the situation where the
media have to literally beg coaches and players for post-match interviews because
post-match conferences are not organised or badly organised, journalists are
forced to find other means of reaching players and coaches after matches. It becomes
worrying when in the line of a journalist’s duty he ends up being wounded for
no good reason.
Police officers at the stadium
shouldn’t be hostile to journalists. Journalists equally have to respect the
Police. These days, our league centres are recording too many incidents of
violence. We must therefore encourage the Police to stem the violent incidents
at the stadium.
At Sekondi where Kotoko played
Hasaacas last week, journalists were compelled to buy tickets despite showing
their accreditation cards at the gate. There was unhealthy confrontation. To safeguard
his life, my colleague, Bernard, for example, had to buy a ticket to cover the
match.
How does anyone justify such
an incident? The safety of life and property at the stadium is important.
However, under hostile circumstances like those that have been enumerated here,
the threat of violence becomes real. That is where one expects the Police to
act and act decisively.
The Baba Yara Sports Stadium
was closed last season as a result of crowd violence. This season, the same
thing has happened again. Kotoko have been outside Kumasi playing its home
matches. Kotoko are thus paying for the rowdiness of a handful of supporters. Painfully,
these rowdy supporters for whose actions Kotoko are ‘suffering’ were not
arrested by the Police.
Why hooligans are left off the
hook while clubs continue to be punished only shows how unprepared we appear to
fight hooliganism in our game. I support any FA regulation or decision that
calls clubs to order but there can be no justification for football hooligans
to go unpunished when they remain the real actors of the misdeed which leads to
clubs being sanctioned.
I don’t know Policing methods
but I doubt if I require security expertise to know that, if a football fan beats
or assaults a referee like it was reported in Kumasi, that fan must be arrested.
From close observation, Police officers at the stadium are usually quick to guide
referees from the pitch to their changing rooms but supporters who dare attack
referees are left off the hook.
Why must that happen? The
Police must go the extra mile to arrest fans who physically attack others as a
result of anger, disappointment or whatever the reason may be. No matter what
their challenges have been, the Ghana Police Service does a good job.
Their service to the country can’t
be downplayed merely on the basis that, in recent times, they have not arrested
football hooligans. Having said that, it is right, to urge the Ghana Police Service
to deal drastically with hooligans. It is high time the Police reviewed their
Policing methods at the stadium.
