Anyone who has either run or watched others run the one-mile race, as we did in our Inter-Schools and Colleges (INTER-CO) athletics in our secondary school days in the 1960s and 1970s, will know how fast the front-liners keep changing positions as they jostled to lead the pack.
It also applies to the marathon race and other long-distance events on the higher international stage.
Galamsey, however, appears to defy this basic reality of changing frontrunners in athletics by being in a “comfortable lead” for a long time without showing any desire to surrender the lead to other news of national interest.
On October 31, 2025, a new LI to repeal LI 2462 was laid in Parliament.
Apart from the rampant absenteeism of MPs in Parliament, sending negative signals of non-seriousness to Ghanaians they are supposed to represent, giving the Speaker cause to warn them sternly, two news items appear to have temporarily pierced galamsey’s dominance.
Both were cases of “jungle justice” where individuals who probably see themselves above the law, took the law into their hands and meted out their own brand of justice to their victims!
While a 49-year-old Apam fisherman subjected a 13-year-old girl to a marathon sex ordeal as punishment for allegedly stealing GH¢800 from him, a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer soldier (WO1) was caught on CCTV administering slaps to two victims in a pharmacy shop at Burma Camp.
Both the fisherman and the soldier were their own “judge, jury and executioner.” (JJE). Wikipedia describes JJE as “someone with unchecked power to make a final, unilateral decision and punishment without due process or oversight.”
Before further discussion, what is a Marathon race and why was the 13-year-old girl’s ordeal described as marathon sex? In my September 2015 article titled “Marathon Finish Line crawl?” I stated in part:
Marathon race’s history
History has it that in the years before Christ (BC) over 2000 years ago, Persia, modern day Iran, and Greece were mortal enemies.
They had fought a series of wars with Persia gaining territory.
In 490 BC, the two armies fought in what Persia believed was going to be the final “show-down” against Greece.
However, at the battle fought at the Greek village of Marathon, the Greek Army comprehensively beat Persia.
Philippides, a Greek soldier and a long-distance runner, was tasked to courier the good news to the authorities in Athens, the capital. He is said to have run nonstop from Marathon to Athens.
When he burst into the Greek Chamber of Magistrates, the equivalent of our Parliament, he shouted, “Joy to you. We have won!” With the news delivered, he collapsed and died of exhaustion.
The distance Philippides ran from Marathon to Athens was 26 miles, 385 yards (26 miles, 385 yards). In the metric system, it is 42 kilometres and 200 metres (42.2 kilometres).
When the modern Olympics started in 1896, Greece, the first host, decided to have an event covering the distance Philippides ran from Marathon to Athens.
This was to honour and immortalise Philippides, as well as the name Marathon.
To this day, the Marathon race is the longest and perhaps the most difficult race in athletics, testing athletes’ endurance, physical and mental strength.
Fisherman justice
The 49-year-old fisherman at Apam alleged that the 13-year-old girl stole GH¢800 from him. He, therefore, decided to have forced sex with the minor as punishment for the alleged theft.
For every GH¢200, he had one hour of sex, making this gruesome act four hours of brutal rape to recoup his alleged stolen GH¢800.
Sadly, it is reported that as he carried out this dastardly act openly, some cheered him, while a few stood by appalled, but did nothing to rescue the girl.
The fisherman has been arrested while four accomplices are on the run.
The girl is being given medical treatment.
Burma Camp slaps
At a pharmacy at Burma Camp, a soldier (WO1) was seen on CCTV heftily slapping two victims, a male pharmacy attendant and a young lady customer who tried to intervene after the first few slaps to the attendant.
His beef was that the pharmacy attendant had refused to take back medications that had been bought earlier, when he came demanding the GH¢65, which was the cost.
Discussion
The idiom “judge, jury and executioner” was first used in Daniel Defoe’s A Memory of the Church of England in 1717. It originates from the concept of a single person having the unilateral power to both decide guilt and impose punishment, bypassing formal legal systems” (Wikipedia).
In a formal legal system, the judge ensures a smooth and fair trial. The jury determines whether the accused is guilty or not.
The prosecutor/executioner is to ensure that the accused is found guilty.
To the extent that both the Apam fisherman and the soldier at Burma Camp dispensed their own weird justice, they could be described as being “judge, jury and executioner.”
The national outcry against these inhuman acts shows how offensive the acts are to Ghanaians. However, the perverse satisfaction of those who cheered on the fisherman as he publicly raped the 13-year-old girl is despicable.
As I often quote from a foreign colleague of mine, “When people know that they can get away with murder because the law does not work, they will commit murder with impunity.
But when they know that, they will be killed for committing murder because the law works; they will not commit murder.”
Sir Sam Jonah recently said that the fact that expensive buildings (box houses) hurriedly built are left unoccupied to rot suggests a dubious source of financing.
This is because no genuine investor will take a bank loan/personal funds to build a house only to allow it to rot.
Real estate has, thus, become a conduit for money laundering, some from drug sales.
Stealing and corruption are the order of the day!
While galamsey remains the “godfather” of Ghana’s problems, it is interesting to know that finally, LI 2462 will soon be repealed, and also chiefs involved in it will be arrested and prosecuted.
Until the law works, individuals will be their own “judge, jury and executioner,” a situation no civilised country must accept.
The fisherman, the soldier and all those who break the law with impunity must face the full rigours of the law.
Leadership, lead by example/integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya; Council Chairman, Family Health University,
Teshie, Accra
E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com
