President of Policy Think Tank, IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has noted that the failure of successive governments to follow through on promises to resource Ghana’s Police Service as one the reasons the Service is in a “decrepit” state.
Speaking on The Big Issue, Franklin Cudjoe said the Service was in need of serious help if they are to execute their mandate of protecting the citizens.
[contextly_sidebar id=”bBsKzdQGXExGPYXZ6Tiv7K6UxDcJqfff”]”I don’t think we have a proper police service… of course, it is the doing of successive governments. I am told reliably, with figures, that we are supposed to have about 52,000 police personnel. As we speak, we have about 38,000 and this year, they are only recruiting 4,000,” he said.
Mr. Cudjoe noted that, the lack of support for police operations from the state over the past two years.
“The politicians have been paying lip service. Did you know that in 2016, the NDC government gave zero cedis to the police service for its operations of the entire elections? They got zero, nothing… and in 2017 again, they go zero again from the NPP government for their operations,” he said.
The IMANI President’s comments were in relation to concerns over the recent high profile crime-related incidents, including the attack on the Kwabenya police station which resulted in the death of a police officer after he was shot by the assailants.
Seven suspects were set free from the cells in the attack, three of whom have since been rearrested.
Poor resources, lack of concern for welfare
Mr. Cudjoe also described the police armoury as a “second world war armoury” to highlight the service’s lack of resources, whilst also highlighting the challenges relating to the remuneration of the officers.
“It is seven police personnel to a single weapon… I think it is worrying. We don’t have to belabour the point that the Police Service itself has not been treated properly. The welfare of the police is a serious matter. As we speak, only 6,200 of them are properly accommodated out of the 38,000 and over.”
“Clearly, we don’t have a Service that is befitting to even take care of themselves before we can even begin to expect that they take care of us,” he stated.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana