IGP Paul Tawiah Quaye
A statement by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) about so-called police neutrality in the ongoing biometric registration exercise has created anxiety among many Ghanaians, especially the largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
A statement by the party, authored by General Secretary Kwadwo Afriyie aka Sir John, comes in the wake of a string of challenges in the registration exercise, especially the dissociation of the Police Administration from the action of a District Police Commander in the Tafo Pankrono District in the Ashanti Region.
The NPP derided the so-called police neutrality to mean the dissociation of the Police Administration from Superintendent Kwesi Ofori of Tafo Pankrono when he declared an NDC hoodlum wanted among others.
“Thus far, the Police Administration’s definition of remaining neutral has been to dissociate itself from district police commanders who try apprehending known criminals bent on causing mayhem and disrupting the ongoing registration exercise, by placing a bounty on the heads of such criminals,” the statement pointed out.
Remaining neutral, the statement added, “has also meant the victimisation of the police officer who defied the status quo by ordering the removal of former Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashitey, from a polling station in Klottey-Korle where he was preventing known residents from registering to vote in the December polls”.
The Police Service, the NPP pointed out, “have a constitutional duty of maintaining law and order, remaining on the side of the rule of law and dealing decisively with those who threaten the peace and stability of this country”.
“What the Inspector General of Police is telling Ghanaians is that his officers should not apprehend anyone who breaks the law, so long as that person is a member of the ruling party,” the NPP stressed, adding that “the police officers should rather standby and remain ‘neutral’ whilst perpetrators of violence run riot throughout the country”.
These actions, the NPP noted, were gradually killing the morale of peace officers and putting the lives of law-abiding Ghanaians at risk.
“This statement by the IGP is unfortunate and most unprofessional and he should immediately retract this statement and take concrete steps to reinstate public confidence in the Police,” the NPP stated.
The IGP continued, by his actions and inactions, to show that he was not on top of the job, the NPP noted, therefore asking him “to resign and give way to an officer who has the courage and ethics to uphold the constitution and maintain law and order without fear or favour”.
The leadership of the NPP, in light of this statement, “wishes to serve notice to the IGP that if the police will not defend our members who have become victims of violence in the ongoing registration exercise, then we will be compelled to defend ourselves.”
By A.R. Gomda
