The Interior Minister, Mr. Ambrose Dery, has said that Police Officers must live to protect ordinary Ghanaians and the state would therefore do everything possible to protect the police.
“We need the police alive to protect lives and property and we cannot allow a few unpatriotic citizens to take them down”, he said. His comment came in defense of the decision to arm officers of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Police Service.
He said contrary to fears that arming the officers pose a threat to public safety, the officers with weapons can now fight crime more effectively.
“Giving the officers arms will enable the MTTD to assist in fighting violent crime. Let me remind you they are all police trained in how to handle arms but only been assigned to take care of traffic.
“Civilians can apply, and after having proper checks are granted permission to buy arms to protect themselves. People who are not trained! If that is not a threat how can arming police be a threat,” he wondered.
Mr Dery made the statement in Sunyani when he addressed the personnel of the Bono and Ahafo Regional Police headquarters as part of his one-day working visit to the Bono Region. His tour also took him to the Ghana Immigration Service(GIS), the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) , the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) the National Disaster Management Organisation(NADMO) and the Regional Peace Council.
Mr. Dery ordered that officers of the MTTD were to be armed following the gruesome killing of two police officers last week.
The two – Sergeant Michael Djamesi and Lance Corporal Mohammed Awal – were shot and killed in the line of duty at Budumburam in the Central region, last week. Their death brings to five the number of police officers who have perished whilst on active duty in the last month.
This has prompted the government to begin arming personnel, including MTTD officers. Already, some bulletproof vests, with cameras have been distributed to the police to improve the personal safety of the officers.
Some of the police in the Ashanti Region have already received some of the vests, and more are expected. Mr. Derry warns that a refusal to wear them will come with sanctions. “When you go out on the UN missions you wear them so here you should wear…so when we start sanctioning, you have to
EFFICIENT SECURITY SERVICES
According to the minister government is determined to equip the nation’s security services to a high standard to enable them to be one of the best globally
He said the government is, therefore, providing essential equipment and logistics required by the security services for personnel to effectively deliver their mandate of protecting the lives and property of citizens.
He mentioned the provision of arms and ammunition, bulletproof personal protective equipment, including; vests designed with video cameras that could capture and record events during operations and other vital infrastructure to make the country’s security even more stable, a major concern of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s.
POLICE AND CAP 30
Mr Ambrose Dery dismissed “rumours” that the government intended to remove the Ghana Police Service from the CAP 30 pension scheme.
The CAP 30 scheme is a non-contributory pension scheme instituted in 1950 under the Pensions Ordinance, No. 42 of Chapter 30, for civil servants in the service before 1972.Mr Dery said there is no iota of truth in the speculation.
“There is this whole business about poor welfare. You know that since the president came to power, we have made sure that we are working on the backlog of promotions.
“I have heard that you people are hearing dangerous rumours that there is a move to remove you from the CAP 30 pensions scheme. Let me state emphatically, at the direction of the President, that the Ghana Police Service will never be removed from the CAP.
KIDNAPPING SITUATION HAS IMPROVED
Mr Ambrose Dery said the kidnapping situation has improved and that the government trusts the police to deliver at all times. Mr Dery said: “Let me put on record that the situation has improved greatly in this country with regards to kidnappings”.
In 2013, he recalled, “There were 77 reported cases of kidnapping. In 2014, there were 76 reported cases of kidnapping. In 2018, there were 58 reported cases of kidnapping. In 2019, so far, there have been 47 reported cases of kidnapping”.
“But because of the improved performance of the police by expedited investigation, 21 of the 47 were found to be false; 17 people were rescued, 10 suspects arrested and 8 dockets prepared”. “You [Ghana Police Service] deserve a round of applause for your performance”, adding: “Let no one doubt your professionalism. … The most important thing is that you should know that the government has all the confidence in your professionalism”.
Between August 2018 and June 2019, Ghana grappled with some major kidnapping cases mostly involving Nigerian suspects.
The most-talked-about involves three Ghanaian ladies: 21-year-old Priscilla Blessing Bentum, last seen on 17 August 2018; 18-year-old Ruth Love Quayson, last seen on 4 December 2018; and 18-year-old Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, last seen on 21 December 2018. They were abducted in the oil-rich city of Takoradi, capital of the Western Region (225 km from the national capital, Accra) – the country’s oil hub – which hosts oil giants Tullow, Kosmos, Anadarko and Sabre Oil & Gas. Together, they operate the Jubilee fields with the state-run Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.
Two Nigerians, Mr Samuel-Udoetuk Wills and Mr John Oji, are on trial for that abduction. The girls remain unfound.
Some human remains were dug out of the backyard of Wills a few weeks ago and are undergoing DNA testing to determine whether or not they are remains of the missing girls.
On 4 June 2019, the kidnapping of Canadians Lauren Tilley, 19; and Bailey Chitty, 20; grabbed international attention. The two students of the University of New Brunswick were in Ghana interning with Toronto-based not-for-profit organisation Youth Challenge International when they got kidnapped at the Royal Golf Club in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region (248 km from the national capital). Their abductors, three Nigerians and five Ghanaians, demanded an $800,000 ransom. The ladies were rescued a week later by Ghana’s security agencies. “No ransom was paid”, Ghana’s Minister of Information Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told the media. The two ladies are back home.
Additionally, three Nigerians kidnapped the Consular-General and Head of Mission of Estonia to Ghana, Mr Nabil Makram Basbous, a Lebanese citizen on 18 April 2019 as he worked out in his Labone neighbourhood. The suspects, the police said, bundled the 61-year-old diplomat into their white Hyundai Elantra after accosting him at gunpoint. He was rescued 23 km away from the national capital after 18 hours. The suspects are still at large.
On 26 April 2019, a 30-year-old Indian businessman, Mr Umpakan Chodri was kidnapped, in Kumasi as well, by three unidentified men with Nigerian attributes. They demanded US$500,000 from his family. The police rescued the victim after several hours and are still on the heels of the suspects.
In the same month, three Nigerians were arrested in a community called ‘Kasoa Chinese’ in the Central Region (about 31 km) from the national capital, for kidnapping and killing a two-year-old boy. The locals believe the suspects used the boy for money rituals.
On Sunday, 16 June 2019 in Mamobi, a Muslim-dominated suburb of Accra, one of four Nigerian suspects was arrested by the residents as he tried luring a four-year-old boy with a mobile phone. He was pummeled and almost lynched by a mob but was later handed over to the police.
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