Ayawaso election: I wasn’t aware of National Security operation – IGP

By:brightwebtv.com/Martin awuku

The Inspector General of Police, David Asante Appeatu has said that he was not informed about the deployment of the National Security personnel for a special operation at La Bawaleshie during the Ayawaso West Wuogon bye-election.

According to him, he only got to know of the presence of the personnel after violence erupted during the by-election.

While admitting that the police are in charge of internal security, he said it was not necessary that they are informed of every operation undertaken by the National Security in the country.
Testifying before the Emile Short Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday, the IGP answered “Yes and No” to a question on whether he finds it important for the police to be informed of all internal security operations to be undertaken by other security agencies.

“[I agree] If the operation is not going to be beyond the Ghana Police Service, I think we should be informed. [I don’t agree] because, the National Security Council is the governing body of all the intelligence agencies in the country. The intelligence that they gather, they do disseminate, we receive reports from them and we act but I believe that sometimes it is on a need to know basis so they have the prerogative not to inform the Ghana Police Service,” he said.

His testimony confirms that of other police officers who played various roles on the day of the Ayawaso by-election.
Some of the officers claimed they were not pre-informed about the operation of the masked national security personnel who fomented trouble at the by-election.
Mr. Asante-Apeatu told the Commission that based on the fact that the personnel arrived in vehicles that had police insignia on them, it was highly impossible for police officers who were deployed to man the election to intervene.

“I am not disputing the fact that my regional commanders and others didn’t know about this, I also did not know about this operation so I side with them. But to patrol within the unit [constituency] with that inscription [Police], definitely individual police officers who have been deployed at the polling station may not have any cause to complain about it because it has the police inscription on the vehicles they were using.”

When challenged by a member of the Commission, Eric Osei Mensah, who insisted that such situation permits unscrupulous persons with access to vehicles with police insignia, to perpetrate violence without police intervention; the IGP admitted that such a probability exists.

“Yes I agree with you that if the police have not been informed about this operation, definitely, it means that anybody can pass for any police operational unit and do whatever they want to do,” he said.

The IGP further said he believes that more collaboration must be ensured between the Police Service and other security agencies in the country avert such a situation.

“There is a lot of room for improvement as far as coordination and collaboration is concerned.”

By: citinewsroom.com | Ghana