The Ghana Police Service has distanced itself from comments made by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Gabriel Prince Waabu on election security.
The police in a statement said the comment by the senior police officer at a public event does not reflect the position of the police administration.
DCOP Prince Waabu, Director General Research speaking on Joy News on Monday indicated that “You look at 2020, the elections that were held was incident free, this is the tactics and we have learnt lessons out of it, taken note of it and so we know where we are moving towards”.
When asked what the Police administration had learnt out of the elections, DCOP Waabu, mentioned that such lessons include how “we organised it, how we organised those elections within last year and whatever happened in 2020, the lesson has been learnt from it, we’re not going to involve military as it were because it’s not even the police that came out with this issues”.
He added “So it’s going to be only the Police, Prisons, Fire Service and Immigration that are going to conduct this election (2024 election). They are going to support us, it’s our duty but we want to call in our sister security agencies to assist us in one way or the other”.
When further quizzed whether that had been sorted out because the police are the primary security agents and will have to request if they need additional support to avoid the involvement of the military to cause tension, he intimated that it had been sorted with the Inspector General of Police (IGP) with his Police Management Board (POMAB) members and every internal issue is the police duty and that is for sure and that is in place.
He continued “The whole country is a hotspot. We are planning towards the whole country as a hotspot. We are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to individual issues”.
According to him, “Yes, they are known, but we’re not concentrating that those would be the hotspots on the D Day. Because if you concentrate on that you might forget of other places. So, yes, we know the old ones. We would put our eyes on those places, and be very vigilant, but we still think that it can become [a major hotspot].
Speaking further he noted that the police have implemented various structures and strategies to guarantee the safety and security of citizens during the electoral process.
He also expressed confidence that the levels of professionalism exhibited in internal party elections would be maintained during this year’s poll.
DCOP Waabu also emphasised that the police have implemented various structures and strategies to guarantee the safety and security of citizens during the electoral process.
However, after the show, the Police Service received a bashing from the Public, hence in a statement, it deemed the comment unfounded and did not represent its position.
The statement explained that under the National Elections Security Taskforce Architecture, it works with all other security services including the Ghana Armed Forces to ensure peace, security, law and order, before, during and after elections.
The statement underscored that the conduct of the officer is being subjected to internal disciplinary processes.
Read the full statement from the Ghana Police Service:
-BY Daniel Bampoe