The Ghana Police Service has announced its intention to deploy some 200 armed police officers to provide bodyguard protection to serving Members of Parliament (MPs).
In a statement signed by its Director of Public Affairs, Superintendent of Police, Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman, the Police Service says the officers will be attached to the MPs for the duration of their tenure in Parliament.
The decision, according to the statement, became necessary after the alleged murder of the MP for Mfantsiman East Constituency, Ekow Quansay Hayford.
According to the statement, the deployment of the 200 officers “will be in addition to the seventy-five Police bodyguards already provided to the leadership and members who double as ministers and deputy ministers.”
It says the officers would be deployed as part of the existing Police Parliamentary Protection Unit, after certain operational conditions arranged between the Ministry for the Interior and the Parliamentary Service have been satisfied.
By Melvin Tarlue