The police recruitment scam …The controversies and inconsistencies
On Saturday, February 28, this year, over 200 young men and women holding letters purported to be their appointment letters from the Ghana Police Service turned up at the Kumasi, Koforidua, Pwalugu, Accra and Ho police training depots for trainig and enlistment into the Ghana Police Service.
Advertisement
On their arrival at the depots, they were shocked to find out that they had been duped in a scam and that their recruitment letters were fake.
According to media reports, it took the police a hectic time to drive away the victims, most of them university graduates, who had travelled from different parts of the country to the depots with their luggage to start training.
At a press briefing two days later, the Director of Police Human Resource and Administration, Commissioner of Police (COP) Patrick Timbillah, condemned the victims for trying to use unapproved means to enter the Police Service, and added that, “Recruitment into the Police Service is not like buying groundnut by the roadside.”
He warned that, “Every police officer found to have been involved in the police recruitment scam will not be shielded.” It, therefore, came as a surprise to many when four days after his warning, he was placed under house arrest for alleged complicity in the scam.
Contradictory statements and information
Since the recruitment scam became public, the Ghana Police Service, the Police Council, the National Security Secretariat, and the Minister of the Interior, Mr Mark Woyongo, have been feeding the public with very contradictory statements and information, thereby creating confusion about the true state of affairs.
First, the Police said Timbillah had been placed under house arrest, but when the public questioned the legality of the action, the Service retracted its earlier statement of placing the man under house arrest, though earlier media reports attributed the announcement of the house arrest to the Director General of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, DCOP David Nenyi Ampah-Bennin.
Then followed the freezing of Timbillah’s assets. Again, when we questioned the judicial powers under which the assets were frozen, Mr Woyongo, the Interior Minister, categorically said the National Security followed the appropriate procedure in freezing Mr Timbillah’s account.
Speaking to an Accra radio station, and also according to a Ghanaian Times story of March 13, the minister said the right authority was sought before the account was frozen. “Proper procedure was followed. This is not the first time somebody’s account has been frozen. National Security has been doing it and they have followed the proper procedure in freezing the accounts of Mr Timbillah.”
He added that, “There is no problem with the freezing of the bank account,” and that due process was followed, explaining that, “Due process meant the appropriate authority was sought before the bank account was frozen.”
However, the National Security Secretariat, in a statement to the media on March 18, denied being involved in the freezing of Mr Timbillah’s account.
The statement said, “The Secretariat wishes to inform you and the general public that all matters pertaining to the police recruitment scam, including the freezing of COP Patrick Timbillah’s accounts, are being handled by the Police Administration.”
Need for clarification
Serious concerns are raised as to how come the Interior Minister, a key member of the National Security apparatus, would misinform the public about an action which the National Security had not taken. Mr Woyongo must, as a matter of importance, clarify this situation and apologise if it turns out that he misinformed the public.
The other concern about the recruitment scam is the way in which the matter is being handled. According to DCOP Ampah-Bennin, a special investigation taskforce “under the direct leadership and supervision of the Inspector-General of Police” had been set up to investigate the case.
Another piece of police information to the public names membership of the taskforce as DCOP Bright Oduro, in charge of the Police College, as Chairman; Chief Supt Tabiri of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters; Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Akorli of the Police Legal Department; Supt Ayamwine of the Property Fraud Unit; Assistsant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Justice Nana Oppong of Central Police Station, Accra; and D/Sgt Thomas Prempeh of Nima Police Station.
How do we reconcile the two pieces of information from the Police Service that a deputy commissioner is the chairman, and the IGP the leader of the same taskforce?
The Police Service claims that ,“It is its new recruitment system that has exposed this fraudulent act. Also it is the Police Service’s Special Investigations Taskforce, under the direct supervision of the IGP, that has started exposing this criminal act.”
Shameful act
This is shameful, considering the fact that the Minister of the Interior says he had information about the scam last year and told the Inspector General of Police (IGP), and yet nothing was done about it, making it easy for frustrated young men and women, some of them university graduates desperate to find jobs, to be duped. What happened to the investigative skills of the service?
In a well-functioning democracy where rule of law works, the IGP would have been the first to be arrested or to resign. Why should Timbillah be interdicted when the IGP had not been interdicted or resigned, and the same IGP supervises a taskforce to investigate the case? Will the IGP admit in the taskforce’s report that he failed to act to prevent the scam when Mr Woyongo told him last year?
It is only in Ghana that the Police Service is allowed to investigate itself in a serious crime such as a scam concerning recruitment into the service, one of the major security wings. How many reported infractions by police personnel has the Ghana Police Service investigated and the public told of the outcome?
Advertisement
In almost every corruption perception survey, the Police Service comes on top, yet its spokespersons would quickly move from one radio or television station to another questioning the basis of the survey results when they know how rotten the service is.
Generally, we should have been proud of the Police Service because of some of the quality personnel we have, and how professional the service could be, yet political incorrectness and ineptitude, coupled with high level of corruption among perhaps a small fraction of the personnel, have damaged the image and reputation of the service.
The government should, as a matter of urgency, halt the work of the Police Taskforce and replace it with an independent body to investigate the issue. The service can’t be a player and referee at the same time. In the meantime, the IGP must resign or be forced to resign if he won’t be sacked.
Gradually, our Police Service is losing credibility, that is if it’s not already lost it. This must concern all of us to save it from total collapse; and this is the time.
Advertisement
The author is a political scientist, and media and communication expert.
Writer’s
email: fasado@hotmail.com