STOP POLITICIZING POLICE RESHUFFLE-WANEP WARNS

Story by Raphael Apetorgbor

Following the recent changes within the Police Headquarters Management Advisory Board and the elevation of a number of service personnel to higher positions, Ghanaians have been urged to avoid politicizing the reshuffle exercise conducted by the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan.

Mr Emmanuel Bombande, Executive Director of West African Network for Peace building (WANEP) who gave the advice explained that politicizing this change could blemish the integrity and image of the police administration.

“It will be dangerous for any individual to read political meanings at the police services reshuffling.” he said, stressing that that the reshuffling within the police service “is a straight forward internal administrative matter within the police service and it comes along with the job.”

Speaking on a private radio station in Accra, he indicated that all police personnel who are professionals in the security sector were aware of these internal changes.

He stated that the changes are bound to happen anytime there is an appointment of a new IGP and added that government does not direct those changes but it is left to the hierarchy of the police service.

“The police service is separated as an independent professional institution even if the vice president is the head of the police council. The concern of the general public would be focused on the monitoring processes that will be done, the type of professionalism that the exercise is expected to produce and the type of impact it will show so that the general public would appreciate the changes that were made.”

Mr Bombande equally urged Ghanaians to expect improved service from the police with the latest re-shuffling.