Timbillah’s arrest: If allegation against him is true, then the police service is dead – Kwesi Aning
A security analyst and head of research at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Dr Emmanuel Kwesi Aning has appealed for restraint by people commenting on the house arrest and interdiction of police commissioner, Mr Patrick Timbillah over his alleged involvement in the police recruitment scam.
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According to him, the latest development was a very difficult time for the Ghana Police Service and whether people like it or not, they would have to engage with the service and ask some extreme tough questions on how to help the service to reclaim the credibility that it deserves.
In an interview with Accra based radio station Joy FM to comment on the matter, Dr Aning said he was personally saddened by the development.
“I’m saddened but in terms of falsification of official document no. “
“I’m saddened for the individual [Timbillah] involved and I’m saddened for the service as a whole because it is a service that I love and it’s a service that plays a critical role in providing security for this country so I think its most unfortunate,” he said.
“Well I think once more, were this to be true, if the investigations were to conclude, that what we are hearing is correct, then I think this will almost sound the death knell of the Ghana Police Service.”
Explaining, Dr Aning said over the past decade, there have been disturbing instances and cases in which officers of all ranks have been complicit in all kinds of malfeasance and consistently over time, both the afro barometer and other assessments of the performance and public perception of the service have rated it negatively.
However, there have been robust denials by the leadership of the service all the time.
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According to Dr Aning, questions such as what tough structural interventions, performance indicators and contracts and how to ensure that public perception of the service as an inherently corrupt institution and how to deal with it should engage people’s minds now.
“This case, because of the levels of combinations and sophistication and the inability of the police intelligence services and national security to get wind of it until the people appeared at the training school with their bags have much wider security implications,” he said.
“First what types of criminal activities and engagements that may threaten the sanctity of this state are going on that we don’t know about. What are the levels of potential complexity from those who are supposed to protect us?”
So this is not just about the police service and that all citizens also have a responsibility in this, Dr Aning said.
He called for a bi-partisan committee to review various commission reports on the Ghana Police Service as a step to restoring the service’s dented image.
Recalling some damning whitepaper reports about the police service, Dr. Aning said it was important for the police council and the President to set up a bi-partisan committee of experts to go into previous inquiries and commissions' reports and recommend how the Ghana Police Service can be moved forward.
Listen to Dr Aning in the interview with Joy FM
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Mr Timbillah was interdicted and placed under house arrest by the Police administration on Friday over his alleged involvement in the recent police recruitment scam.
His signature and name were on the appointment letters that were issued to the victims of the scam.
The police have managed to arrest some of the brains behind the scam and they have named the top police officer, who is just one step away from the topmost position in the service, a deputy or a substantive Inspector General of Police (IGP) as their accomplice.
According to the police administration, the arrested suspects have provided an evidence of text message conversations between them and Mr Timbillah.
Mr Timbillah has denied the allegations.