NDC urges IGP to purge service of miscreants
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has urged the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, to take bold and pragmatic action to clean the Ghana Police Service of all miscreants.
While commending Dr Dampare for the initiatives he had so far brought to bear on the Police Service, Mr Asiedu Nketiah said there was an urgent need for the IGP to do more to expose the bad lots in the service to win the confidence of Ghanaians and other stakeholders.
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In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Asiedu Nketiah said it was time to do thorough background checks on all personnel recruited within the past two to three years since the personnel involved in the crimes being committed were from those batches.
“It has to be done. We must go back to two or three years back and interrogate those who were recruited,” he said.
Recruitment
Mr Asiedu Nketiah said within those years, a number of stakeholders, including Parliament, were questioning the mode of recruitment because nobody heard of or saw advertisements for recruitment but recruits were passing out of the various security training depots.
He also wondered why the Emile Short Commission recommended the disbandment of the SWAT teams but the unit was still being operated.
Exposure
Mr Asiedu Nketiah commended the IGP for doing his best to expose corruption and criminal activities by police personnel.
“We are beginning to see some transparency in the operations of the Police Service since Dr Dampare took over,” he stated.
According to him, the continuous issuance of statements to clarify major issues involving the police was a step in the right direction, stressing that it was that level of transparency that had brought these discussions into the public domain, “for which reason all of us are contributing to help shape the police”.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah said nobody should be under the impression that the wrongdoings being exposed were created by Dr Dampare.
“It is very clear that many of the things have their roots in the previous police administrations and not under Dr Dampare. Those personnel were not recruited under Dr Dampare,” he stated.
He recalled media expose of recruitment into the security services around the premises of the Castle but nothing was done about it apart from the official denial.
“I think that there is the need for the IGP to do more because what he has exposed has raised questions. It means that he has to provide further explanations as to what has happened before citizens get convinced that he is doing the right thing.
“But from where we sit now, it creates some doubts in the minds of Ghanaians whether the operation that led to the death of the two policemen was an operation to cover up evidence or expose wrongdoing,” he added.
