<<Print>>

The Police Administration has assured its staff of a permanent solution to its accommodation problem. The service is currently in the process of engaging with corporate bodies under the Public Private Partnership agreement (PPP) to address the situation. Speaking during a tour of the Marine,Oil , Gas and Petroleum Police Training School at Ayinase in the Western Region, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, said land had been acquired for the project. "Police officers sacrifice so much to maintain peace and stability in the country, yet their conditions of service are not the best as most of the young officers live in inappropriate houses with dilapidated structures," he said. The police administration, he said, had setup a committee that had been tasked to identify possible alternative solutions that could be implemented by the police to provide housing units for its officers. The police chief said the police was also taking steps to see how best funds in the police welfare scheme could also be utilised to construct bungalows, adding "All these are part of a wider multifaceted approach to finally put an end to police accommodation problems." Marine Police The IGP congratulated the marine police unit on their dedicated service to the police and the country. He said with the limited resources and personnel, the unit had managed to deliver on its mandate by consistently patrolling the high seas, "these efforts was restoring confidence in the unit," he added. To improve upon the current operations of the marine unit, he said the police administration was taking steps to increase the number of officers to the unit so that they could carry out more effective patrols at sea. Police prosecutors "We have already deployed prosecutors to the region to help with prosecuting offenders and we will soon start a comprehensive marine police training here at Aiyinase when the construction of the facilities was completed," he said. He said it was important to provide security to the pipelines that were being laid as part of the Ghana Gas infrastructure and that the police was being supported by the Ghana Gas Company and other oil and gas companies that had various facilities offshore. The school, which is due to be completed in June, this year, is a $1.2 million United States government funded project that is aimed at providing a training centre for the marine police unit of the Ghana Police Service. Expressing his satisfaction with the work done, the IGP said the school's vision was to become a centre of excellence in marine police training in the West African sub region and that the facility would be fully furnished with all the necessary logistics needed to achieve the vision.