Slain Kwabenya officer Ashilevi, 12 Others honoured

Assistant Superintendent of Police, (ASP) Emmanuel Kwaku Ashilevi, who was shot and killed during the 21st January, 2018, attack on the Kwabenya Police Station by armed men has been posthumously honoured by the Police Service together with twelve others who also died in the line of duty.

President Akufo-Addo joined the Police Command to perform the memorial ceremony at the National Police Training School at Tesono, Accra. The Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery;

The Inspector General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu; the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Obed Akwa; Deputy Minister for Defence, Major-retired Derrick Oduro, and the entire Police Service hierarchy joined the President to observe the Memorial Day.

The President on arrival lighted the perpetual flame. Subsequently, he laid the first wreath for and on behalf of the Government and people of Ghana.

The Inspector General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu laid the second wreath on behalf of the Ghana Police Service, a representative of the bereaved families laid the third wreath and the last was laid on behalf of the chieftaincy institution by a representative of traditional rulers. President Akufo Addo before departing, toured the cenotaph and signed the remembrance book.

The Exaltation

In his words of exhalation captioned ‘Grieving in Hope’, Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP) Very Rev. Frank Twum-Baah, said in the phase of an enemy’s attack, grief can never be selfish. He preached saying in grief, one can only find hope in Jesus Christ. Quoting Charles Henry Brent, who once said, “A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean. She is an object and I stand watching her till at last she fades from the horizon,

And someone at my side says, “She is gone!” Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all; She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,

And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination. The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her; And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is gone”, There are others who are watching her coming,

And other voices take up a glad shout, “There she comes” – and that is dying”, Very Rev. Twum-Baah urged the bereaved families to take consolation in the fact that their departed lived ones are resting in the bosom of the Lord.

The Officers Honoured

At the 2018 ceremony, thirteen Police officers were honoured. ASP Emmanuel Kwaku Asilevi, Chief Inspector Adolph Mutse, Corporal Nicholas Duku, Corporal Daniel Adu Tieku, and Corporal Prosper Ashinyo, had their names engraved on the Wall of Honour.

Sergeant Yakubu Seidu, Sergeant Emmanuel Aduko, Sergeant Owusu Appiah, Corporal Salifu Alhassan, Corporal Thomas Kwame Adu, Lance Corporal Animon Kwaku Danso, Lance Corporal Abdulai Sumaila, and Constable Emmanuel Lamptey, had their names inscribed in the “Roll of Honour.”

The Police Memorial Day

The Police Memorial Day was first celebrated in the year 2014. In the maiden celebration, all officers who qualified for honours prior to the day were immortalised. Two years later in 2016, a cenotaph was inaugurated for the purpose of cresting a “Wall of Honour”.

Fifteen Police officers were immortalised in that year with eights names engraved on the “Wall of Honour” and seven inscribed in the “Roll of Honour”. Similarly, in the 2017, nine Police officers were honoured. Five of them had their names engraved on the “Wall of Honour” and remaining inscribed in the “Roll of Honour”.