ON Friday, February 3, 2017 the Ghana Police Service sent home some two hundred and six (206) new police recruits. The reason for that action by the police hierarchy was that these recruits had entered the service with fictitious certificates.
THERE were also among these sacked recruits who did not meet the minimum qualification requirement for entry into the service. And quite surprisingly we have been told that some entered without certificates. To say the least this is unthinkable and preposterous! That people will be recruited into the police service without possessing a single certificate.
AND ever since the Police Administration under the leadership of the acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), David Asante-Appeatu, took that action there has been a lot of hue and cry about it. While a section of the Ghanaian populace is reading politics into the action, some have commended the police for taking what they intimate as a bold step.
IT is even being rumoured that the 206 recruits were asked to go home because of their affinity to the now opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) which was the ruling party then at the time of the recruitment exercise. This has prompted a reaction from the police who have come out to state categorically that the decision was purely administrative.
ACCORDING to the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Cephas Arthur, “…it is not true that the dismissal was politically motivated. Those who are alleging so have politically inclined intentions, so they are doing so to achieve a certain motive or objective…it is certainly not true.
…Right from the time we started the process, we built check and scrutiny system into the process so that in the course of the process, those who are not qualified will be exposed. It is very unfortunate that some people are skewing the information this way, for whatever motive I don’t know.”
IN fact this problem of recruitment is not akin to the police; it cuts across. It happens during enlistment into other security agencies including the Military, Immigration Service, National Security, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) among others. And the reason why such issues reoccur is because ruling parties always want to satisfy their grassroots supporters.
IT is refreshing that the police hierarchy has taken this step to rid the service of such characters. We should not forget that it is these people who become full officers and then tend to give the police a bad name by committing all kinds of crimes.
WE have had cases of law enforcers engage in armed robbery and assassination of innocent citizens of this country. And these are officers who have sworn oath to protect lives and properties.
HOWEVER, there is this common practice that is associated with many of our state institutions. This normally happens during the recruitment/enrolment period. This is the practice where people with fake certificates/documents are first enrolled and later sacked when discovered that they entered through dubious means.
WHY this should be the standard is something we cannot comprehend. Or we think such persons cannot commit any crimes in the early stages of being enlisted? In our estimation it is important for our security agencies to do thorough investigations into the certificates and documents that are presented by persons to be recruited.
THE object of such an approach will enable them fish out these fraudulent persons and deal with them before they strike a devastating blow to our security agencies. More so cases of this nature should not end with dismissal, but rather harsher punishment must be applied. This must include prosecution which we believe will serve as deterrent to others.
IT is in the light of the above that Today is happy the Police Administration had made it clear that they will prosecute these persons who entered the service with fake documents.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
