NCCE wants victim of police brutality at Midland compensated

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has expressed disapproval of the savage beating of a woman by a police officer at the Midlands Savings and Loans Company which was captured in a viral video.

A statement by Mrs Joyce Afutu, Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs, said the Commission said “the NCCE has noted with horror and shock, a video circulating on social media of a police officer assaulting a woman holding a baby which allegedly occurred at a bank and condemns this barbaric act of police brutality in no uncertain terms”.

It described the act as heinous, outrageous, unacceptable, and an affront to the dignity and fundamental human rights of the victim and the baby.

“It undermines our democracy and the rule of law. The cruelty and brutality of the police officer further breaches provisions of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”

The Commission therefore called for the Ministry of Interior, the Ghana Police Service and other appropriate agencies, to investigate the matter swiftly and to punish the offending officer.

It added that the victim should be compensated for the physical and psychological trauma she had suffered.

“In our current democratic dispensation, we must not allow such elements of violence and individuals with barbaric tendencies shrouded in police uniform to cause the citizenry to lose confidence in the Ghana Police.”

It acknowledged efforts by the Police Administration over the years to achieve high professional standards and world-class policing and said deviant officers needed to be reined in.