POLICE SERVICE NEEDS RESOURCES- MINISTER

28/07/08
Story: Mary Mensah & Sahadatu Atintande

The Interior Minister, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufour, has called on corporate organisations to partner the government in ensuring that the Ghana Police Service is adequately resourced.
He said the police service was the principal security agency entrusted with the responsibility for maintaining internal law and order, hence the need to support it to enable it give its best.
The minister made the call at a meeting with high ranking police officers and members of the Chamber of Mines in Accra last Friday.
He said the meeting, the second to be held, formed part of an initiative by the Ministry of Interior to reach out to corporate bodies to support the police.
Dr Addo-Kufour said the government had since 2001 provided the police with considerable resources with the aim of making the service efficient and effective.
He said from a staff strength of 15,983 in 2001 the current number of personnel stood at 22, 629 and about 500 vehicles had been purchased for the service since that time.
Many communication gadgets of various types have also been made available to the police, Dr Addo Kufuor added.
In addition, he said, many training courses, both local and abroad, had been arranged for the personnel to enhance their capacity while service conditions had also been improved.
“ I am aware that most mining companies spend huge sums of money on private security arrangements, I therefore entreat you to extend your corporate social responsibility to the Ghana police to enhance the capability and effectiveness of the service”, he appealed.
Dr Addo-Kufour said a well equipped and capable police service would ensure peace in the community and a safe environment for prosperous mining operations.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce Aryee, noted that ensuring security for the nation was a shared responsibility which must not be left to the police service alone.
She, therefore, urged well meaning Ghanaians to join forces with the police to ensure that rule of law worked and also that peace and security prevailed to create a crime-free Ghana.
Ms Aryee said the Chamber of Mines had been supporting the Police Service but had gone through some period of fatigue recently.
She gave the assurance that the Chamber had taken note of the issues raised by the Police Service and would do their best to address them.
Ms Aryee expressed concern about the activities of illegal and unlicensed miners, which she claimed were on the increase and described them as a threat to the mining sector.
She said illegal miners must be conversant with the law and desist from breaking it in the name of unemployment.
“ Gold is not the only mineral available for mining in this country, there are possibilities of mining other equally important minerals such as clay, stone and bauxite” she noted.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mrs Elizabeth Mills Robertson, said although the government had done a lot to advance the Police Service, there was still more to be done.
She said 30 years ago, almost every police station in the country had a vehicle but the situation had changed because of the increase in the number of police stations.