CPP Is Ignorant | Police

The Ghana Police Service has described as baseless, calls by the Convention Peoples Party that the position of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) be scrapped. The Head of Public Affairs of the Police Service, Superintendent Kwesi Ofori told Citi News such calls expose how ignorant people were about the operations of the Service. His comments were in reaction to the CPP’s claim that the office of the IGP was discouraging decentralization in the service. The CPP’s Shadow Interior Minister, George Aguddey, who said this at a News Conference on Wednesday November 18, said in line with the CPP’s policies, the office of the Inspector General of Police would be abolished to ensure efficient monitoring and safeguarding of security nationwide. Instead, they suggested the appointment of Metropolitan Commissioners of Police in all ten Regions to take decisions and be responsible for their actions rather than wait on Accra for directives. Mr Auddey said the CPP is convinced that the police command structure needs to be reviewed to allow the taking of swift decisions to deal with sticky situations which are often referred to Accra for directives. However in a quick response, Superintendent Kwesi Ofori said the IGP’s position is relevant in directing the affairs of the Police Service in general. “The call by the CPP is baseless and it shows our level of ignorance of the police service. We are in the world at a time where all security institutions are trying to have a high level of national coordination. You would realize that after the September 11, 2001 attack, some of the Western countries have been trying to make sure that their separate police forces have an operating centre for information sharing to track down criminals internally or externally. So we as a nation have the Inspector General at the apex of it directing affairs” he noted. Superintendent Kwesi Ofori noted that the office of the IGP was the brainchild of CPP Founder Kwame Nkrumah and wondered why the party is now questioning its relevance. Buttressing the CPP’s position, Mr. George Aguddey told Citi News that times have changed hence the need for the Police Service to restructure its command makeup to meet new security challenges