The Ghana Police Service is to establish a depot at Akyem Oda for the training of Formed Police Unit (FPU) recruits. The Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area has already made available 76 acres of land for the venture.
To this end, a four-member team, two each from the Ministry for the Interior and the Police Administration, met the traditional rulers from Akyem Kotoku State at Oda last Monday to discuss the modalities for the establishment of the new police depot.
The visit was in response to an appeal made recently in Accra to the Minister for the Interior, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Christian Tetteh Yohuno, by the Omanhene of the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area, Oseadeeyo Dr Frimpong Manso IV.
The team, including traditional rulers, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Birim Central, Solomon Brako Kusi, and police personnel from the Oda Divisional Police Command, inspected the land earmarked for the new police training school.
In an address, the Omanhene cautioned individuals who had encroached on the police land to vacate it voluntarily, warning that failure to do so would result in a combined team of the police and the traditional council evicting them without any compensation.
The Omanhene said he was grateful to the Minister for the Interior and the IGP for granting his request to set up the police training school at Oda, stressing that the facility would benefit the government and the nation at large.
He stressed that Oda was strategically positioned at the centre of the new Accra-Kumasi expressway, where many industrial establishments would likely be sited.
Building materials
Oseadeeyo Frimpong Manso said there were abundant building materials at Akyem Ajobue in the traditional area, such as sand and stones, which could be used for the construction of the police depot.
He seized the opportunity to appeal to tipper truck owners to voluntarily release their vehicles to cart the building materials to the project site to facilitate its early completion.
He also enjoined the affluent Akyem Kotoku citizens to contribute financially towards the construction of facilities for the new police depot.
The Omanhene admonished people in the area to strive towards sustaining the prevailing peace, unity and stability in the area.
The team also inspected a new police office complex under construction for the Oda Divisional Police Command.
The Oda Divisional Crime Officer, Chief Superintendent Abdulai Kamagate, who conducted the team around the project, said it was being funded with local resources as the current rented premises, which the police had occupied for over 50 years, had been sold off by the landlord.
The leader of the team from the Ministry for the Interior, Solomon Tetteh Mensah, and his counterpart from the Police Administration, Supt. Stephen Abakah, commended the Omanhene and the Akyem Kotoku State for their tireless efforts towards the establishment of the new police depot and promised to carry their report to the departmental heads of the ministry.
