Curbing escape of criminals: Armed police to guard cells
The Police Administration has posted special armed policemen to all police cells throughout the country to forestall any further cell escape.
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It has also embarked on an orientation and sensitisation exercise for all counter non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who man the cells at the various police stations.
The move follows recent cell breaks, during which a number of suspects fled from police cells.
The Director General in charge of the Press and Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Rev. David Nenyi Ampah-Bennin, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, said the heavily armed personnel would guard police cells, particularly at night, to ensure that no crime suspect escaped.
Cells in good order
He said assessment of the cells where the escape occurred had revealed that they were in good order.
He said the policemen who were on duty when the incidents occurred had not been “let off the hook”, as they were given 10 days to produce the suspects or face disciplinary action.
DCOP Ampah-Bennin said the Police Administration had launched full-scale investigations into the different cell break incidents and any policeman found to have conspired with the suspects would be put before the law courts.
He made a promise that the police would not shield anybody and that findings of the investigations would be made public.
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Collaboration
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior, Mr Mark Woyongo, has said the ministry was collaborating with the Police and the Prisons services to implement measures that would prevent further cell and prison breaks.
four prison and cell breaks have been reported in the last few months, including the ones at the Kumasi Prison and the Denu police cell, where seven suspects escaped with two AK 47 assault rifles and five rounds of ammunition.
Early this month, two prisoners escaped from the Tepa Police cell in the Ashanti Region after they had reportedly used some tools to break the metal bars in the cells.
The prison and cell breaks have led to heightened fear among members of the public over their safety and the effectiveness of the prison system.
Re-call
On Sunday, March 14, 2015, seven suspects escaped from the Denu Police cell. Last month, there was an alleged jail break at the Kumasi Prison.
Early this month too, two suspects escaped from the Tepa Police cells.