Following the arrest of Dennis Miracles Aboagye, a member of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) on Monday, a Professor of Law, Kweku Asare also known as Azar has called out the Economic and Organized Crimes Office(EOCO) for failing to provide the public with updates on the arrest.
The professor of law did not question EOCO’s powers to arrest any citizen on suspicion of a crime, but said a problem arises when details of the rest are kept under lock.
“An arrest should never create uncertainty about whether a person has simply vanished into state custody,” he said while emphasizing that, “public confidence in law enforcement depends not only on effective investigations but also on transparent adherence to constitutional safeguards.”
Dennis Miracles Aboagye a prominent member of the NPP was arrested on Sunday, but no one knows his whereabouts or how he is doing, on this note Kweku Azar outlined certain steps a law enforcement agency should take when an arrest is made.
He said, “at a minimum, once a person is arrested, the arresting authority should identify itself and the legal basis for the arrest, inform the person, in a language he or she understands, of the reasons for the arrest, promptly notify the person’s family or other appropriate persons of the place of detention, where appropriate.”
“As a general rule, the arresting authority should also issue a prompt, factual public notification of every arrest.
Such a statement need not disclose sensitive investigative details or compromise the presumption of innocence,” he added.
The professor stated that such procedures when followed does not weaken an institution like EOCO, but rather strengthens it, as “they demonstrate that the Office acts with confidence in the law rather than merely with the force of the State.”
Source: Desmond Adom