Police Forms In NDC Office

Police recruitment forms have been spotted in a National Democratic Congress (NDC) regional office at Kanda, near Nima in Accra. This shows the level of the party�s influence in the enlistment of prospective recruits into the internal security organisation. The forms are intended for distribution to wards or favourites of party apparatchiks. The recruitment exercise has been fraught with anomalies for some time now, and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) is struggling to tackle the problem. Such forms are given out to prospective recruits only by the police and not party executives in any constituency. DAILY GUIDE sources said 250 �applicants� suspected to be supporters of the NDC and their accomplices, including a serving police officer, Inspector Senyo Ameyaw, who worked at the Police Hospital as laboratory technician, a National Security operative, Sylvanus Kuma, and another civilian worker at the Police Hospital, Faustina Kuma, were busted at dawn last Saturday. They were picked up around 2:30am Saturday when they were going through a supposed medical screening exercise. Police officers are amazed at the night time processing of some aspects of the recruitment procedure, an anomaly steeped in corruption. Sources at the Police Headquarters said the prospective recruits picked their forms from the NDC office at Kanda as alluded to in a previous paragraph. The IGP has already reacted to the scandal, ordering a probe into it. DAILY GUIDE alluded to the �commercialization� of recruitment into the police in an editorial, prompting the IGP to order the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) unit to probe the issue. A certain DSP Edith came to DAILY GUIDE offices, seeking clues to the corrupt practices but failed to get any. Now, the IGP has enough evidence to rid the service of bad nuts who have resorted to selling places in the police training schools across the country. In the said editorial, DAILY GUIDE alluded to the fact that between GH�200 and GH�250 is demanded from prospective recruits, with GH�50 being for medical examinations. Another scandal that hit the Police Service was the one in the Kumasi Police Training School, with recruits losing part of their allowances to instructors. With the story given ample coverage, the IGP ordered a probe to ascertain the veracity of the offence, whereupon a team from the Police Headquarters proceeded to Parliament House to investigate the allegation. The unnerved Police Administration was said to have decided to delay the passing-out date of the recruits, a decision which was however rescinded. The recruits however passed-out last week. Recruitment into the police and other security agencies has suddenly become a goldmine for ruling party hangers-on who are exploiting it to the fullest as a money-making venture and providing jobs for the boys. No police officer would want to be quoted on the subject even if they regarded the developments as unwholesome for the image of the Police Service. One of such officers told DAILY GUIDE that although protocol recruitment was standard practice, when the number of such concessions to the ruling party was in the region of over a hundred, then minds got boggled. In another development, Tafo-Pankrono District Police Commander, Superintendent (Supol), Kwesi Ofori, is set to take over from Chief Supol Mohammed Suraj as head of Community Policing, with the latter going on an international assignment.