ICP, Asante Apeatu
Superior police officers, especially those holding command positions across the country, are panicking over an imminent shakeup of the law enforcement system at their level.
Some regional commanders, if not all, would be affected by the impending changes and those due for retirement not likely to be given the opportunity of contract engagement usually reserved for political favourites under the previous administration.
There is one such favourite of the erstwhile political administration whose retirement was due five years ago but enjoyed an extended contract largesse because of his political connection with the Flagstaff establishment and his readiness to do unprofessional assignments, which gave the Police the negative image the new Chief Constable is struggling to extricate the system from.
The system of transfers of top officers having been politicized, especially when elections are due such changes at the top of the Police is an unwelcome phenomenon, which came under the public sledgehammer when the former IGP applied it with a suspicious frequency.
The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service Superintendent Cephas Arthur was always quick to dangle the almost worn-out excuse of the IGP merely exercising the powers of his office in the national interest.
One of the top officers, it has been learnt, could be heading for the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards unit, fondly called PIPS.
The Acting IGP, a victim of the suspicious transfers, was for a long time underutilized, having been holed up in the ICT/Marine Department as Director General.
Others who were not in the good books of the politicians at the helm were also confined to less attractive positions.
In an unrelated development, Inspector Karim Mamman, one of the persons heading for the VVIPU in the recent transfers of personnel to the unit and who was reported to have killed a robbery suspect last year, has received a bill of exoneration.
His action, which led to the death of the robbery suspect, happened after an initial burglary of his car at the Kotobabi Police Station he decided to monitor the robber.
As he kept watch in the car under darkness and unknowing to the suspect he overheard someone tampering with the car.
He challenged the suspect who charged upon him with a dagger mincingly.
The cop, in self defence, pulled the trigger when it was clear that the suspect was intent in inflicting a fatal harm on him.
Karim was part of the security detail of the late Vice President Aliu Mahama.
By A.R. Gomda