Police To Recruit 2,000 Personnel To Combat Crime – Interior Minister
The Ghana Police Service is to recruit 2,000 personnel this year to shore up the numerical strength of the service to effectively combat crime, the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, has said.
The decision to increase the number, he said, is aimed at meeting the United Nations target of 500 people to a police officer.
According to him, 200 vehicles and 400 motor cycles have been given to the service to beef up its logistical operations.
“We are prepared to do better. New stations have been opened in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale to open up more avenues to deal with the security situation,” Mr. Dery stated.
Mr. Dery, MP, Nandom, was speaking with the media after meeting Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee with the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu.
The meeting was at the request of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee following attacks on security personnel in recent times.
The meeting, held behind closed doors, the Ghanaian Times understand, centred on the dastard killing of Inspector Emmanuel Ashilevi of the Kwabenya Police by an armed gang on Sunday.
The raid by the gang led to the escape of seven suspected armed robbers who were in custody at the Kwabenya station.
According to sources at the meeting, the murder of two police officers at Drobonso in the Sekyere Afram Plains District of the Ashanti Region on January 11 was also discussed.
Failing to give details of the meeting, Mr. Dery noted that government had taken a serious view of the security situation in the country and was making all the efforts to furnish the police service with the needed logistics to enable them to contain the situation.
Mr. James Agalga, Ranking Member, Defence and Interior Committee, told journalists that the committee had made some recommendations to the government which should be considered and factored into a national strategy to deal with the worrying security challenges.
He confirmed that the clashes between some Fulani herdsmen and locals in some parts of the country also featured at the meeting.
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