Fredrick Amanor

Asoreba Skalla

Caroline Boateng Opinion Jul - 24 - 2018 , 09:28 4 minutes read

Fredrick Amanor, alias Skalla, the policeman who assaulted a hawker, Patience Osafo, must have taken God for granted.

So he now has the President, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Police Service, ministers, the women’s caucus in Parliament, Ghanaians and all these women groups and human rights activists crawling up his trousers.

From his Facebook profiles, Skalla is an ‘Asoreba,’ that is, a church member, even serving as a drummer at the Revival International Ministry.

The lack of patience on his part has resulted in this uproar across the length and breadth of Ghana.

For me, the most intriguing part of the video recording of the assault on Patience Osafo is the hefty blow he intended to give her that sent Skalla himself spiralling to the floor.

If that blow had landed, Patience would have lost some teeth or sustained some fracture in the skull.

It made me wonder what his interest was in Midland Savings and Loans Company Limited.

I wondered whether he was a major shareholder of the company, with the greatest stake in the interests.

He took it upon himself to teach “loud mouth” Patience Osafo a lesson she would never forget!

And, indeed, Patience will never forget the day Skalla laid his hands on her for it has brought her the cash she could never have dreamt of in all her life. It has given her a choice with the legal assistance required to prosecute the matter, which has already been judged and condemned by all as criminal and bestial.

She now has lawyers at her beck and call, including benevolent Ghanaians impassioned to give her assistance for justice, but I wonder how the whole thing degenerated into this pummelling.

What was Skalla's briefing before he was assigned to the bank?

Was it to maintain security? Drive away recalcitrant clients?

Was he to become familiar with Midland Savings and Loans Company Limited staff and obey their every command like the one to drive away Patience and teach her a lesson?

What are the protocols that govern police/private security details at banks/savings and loans companies?

When they get to the premises, what are they supposed to do?

Ensure security? Ensure that clients are able to fill savings and deposit slips properly?

Run errands for staff and directors? Carry the director or manager’s bag to and from the car?

In ensuring security, does the detail bear allegiance to the bank/savings company or Ghanaians and clients of the bank?

These are issues the Police Service has to think through and make clear.

Perhaps, if our leaders were really working and thinking through challenges, we would not now be having the Inspector General of Police (IGP) locked up in day-long meetings with directors of the Midland Savings and Loans Company after the act.

The Ministry of the Interior, which supervises private security companies, must also think through these and set standards.

In civilised jurisdictions, Patience Osafo would have easily been cooled down and impressed upon to go and come back, if it was very necessary.

In civilised countries, there would not have been the need to even tell her to go and return the next day.

In civilised communities clients are paramount and are treated with respect and attention.

They are not stressed when they go to companies to access their money.

They are not made to sit at bank and savings and loans companies from morning to evening, wasting precious time because of the disregard by uncivilised companies and their staff.

Ghana’s bankings and savings and loans institutions must live up to expectation.

We have a contract with them to let us have our money back with dispatch when we deposit funds.

Most tellers and relationship persons in banking halls behave as if they do clients a favour when they process their cheques and request slips.

They should remember that they would not be in jobs but for the GH¢250 of people like Patience Osafo.

Her beating is a lesson to all, particularly politicians and duty bearers who have now jumped on the bandwagon holding themselves out as if they have always had her concerns at heart.

If they really did, she would not have been beaten by Skalla!