Police Council backs efforts to unravel recruitment scam
The Police Council has endorsed initiatives by the Police Administration to uncover and deal with persons involved in the recent police recruitment scam.
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It has, accordingly, asked the Special Investigation Taskforce (SIT), under the leadership and supervision of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), to expedite the investigations and submit its report by March 20, 2015.
That was the outcome of the council’s meeting in Accra yesterday after it had been briefed on the scandal and the initiatives that had been taken by the Police Administration thereafter.
The IGP, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, told the Daily Graphic after the meeting that the council received a full briefing from the SIT on its investigations so far.
Endorsement
He said after deliberating on the briefing by the SIT, the council endorsed the actions so far taken by the Police Administration in dealing with the matter.
He said the council further asked the administration to apply all the disciplinary procedures within the Ghana Police Service to ensure that due process was followed in dealing with any misconduct.
Mr Alhassan said the council also tasked him (the IGP) to intensify his supervisory role in the day-to-day administration of the service.
Recruitment scandal
A recruitment scandal hit the Ghana Police Service on February 28, 2015 when scores of young people thronged a number of police training schools across the country to begin training.
Seven persons, including two police officers, were initially arrested in connection with the fraud.
Among the suspects, two of them, identified as Aisha Asumda, alias Aisha Boku Masi, a 36-year-old shea butter seller suspected to be the mastermind of the scam, and her accomplice, Alifa Adams, alias Abass, a 27-year-old unemployed, were arrested at Tesano and Adenta, respectively, following a tip-off.
The five other suspects apprehended at various locations across the country included Amos Brown, 40, a radio presenter; General Corporal Gideon Sarpong of the Visibility Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Takoradi, and Constable Ruth Agyiri, 27, of the Central Police Station, Koforidua.
The rest are Pastor Paul Danso from Tarkwa and Richard Harrison, 30.
COP Timbilla
The SIT was subsequently set up under the leadership and supervision of the IGP.
The investigation by the SIT led to the uncovering of what it said was evidence implicating the Director-General of the Human Resource Department of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Patrick Timbilla.
Mr Timbilla was subsequently interdicted and his bank account frozen.