Manhyia Palace takes steps to improve Otumfuo’s security

The Manhyia Palace has initiated moves to ensure that Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is well protected from any attack, while other chiefs and facilities  are also secured, in the face of terror threats in the sub-region and criminal elements in the country.

As a first step, Manhyia has organised a high-level workshop during which most of the chiefs and the security persons around the King have been schooled on current security threats and how to avert them.

Other issues pertaining to securing the Manhyia Palace and the King were also discussed.

Speaking at the workshop, the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Nathan Kofi Boakye, made it clear that chiefs were legitimate targets for criminal elements.

He said it was for that reason and many others that they must take their personal security as a paramount issue and work towards ensuring that they did not leave loopholes for people with evil intentions to have their way.

He took the participants through topics such as security influence peddling and its effects; communication, physiological and physical security; security and its relationship with protocol; how to keep secrets; respect and discipline, among other important topics related to security.

Detractors

Mr Boakye said it was wrong for chiefs to always communicate to people about where they (chiefs) were going because that allowed detractors to easily lay ambush and attack them.

Using recent attacks on chiefs in the country that ended in fatalities as examples, he made it clear that such issues demanded that chiefs take their personal security as their top priority and invest in it.

Other Trending Stories

Small scale miners vow to help track down ‘bad nuts’ with govt support

World Bank report identifies implementation gap in 50 countries hindering business climate

Curfew hours at Kpatinga in Northern Region extended by Interior Ministry

Let’s use access to information in building resilient societies — Information Minister

Oseadeeyo Kwasi Akuffo, the Okuapehene

He urged chiefs to approach the security agencies for advice and protection and asked them to ensure that their residential areas were secured.

Mr Boakye expressed reservations over the use of pump action guns during festivities and stated that the practice was a threat to security.

Wiamoase Mensa Ba Yaw Mensah, who coordinated the workshop, said Asanteman took the security of the state very seriously.

Other speakers were Commissioner of Police Mr Yaw Adu-Gyimah, one-time Ashanti Regional Police Commander, and Dr Wilhelmina Donkor, a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.