The Ghana Charismatic Bishops’ Conference has demanded that the country’s security structure be immediately reformed.
According to the Conference, this has become important due to a growing lack of public confidence, especially in the Ghana Police Service.
Latest activities, according to the Conference, have shown that the “nation’s security system is not well set up.”
Latest activities, according to the Conference, have shown that the “nation’s security system is not properly set up.”
The remarks came in the aftermath of the detention of Citi FM and Citi TV journalist Caleb Kudah, as well as the ensuing raid of the premises by national security operatives.
According to the Conference, citizens are increasingly losing trust in security agencies, in part because they cannot get the police to respond to emergencies or receive no police action on suspected crimes.
In an interview with Citi News, Rev. Kwesi Deh, General Secretary of the Ghana Charismatic Bishops’ Conference, called for an urgent reformation of the security architecture to raise public confidence.
“The first thing I’d like to mention is the amount of fear and trauma that people have to deal with. Often it’s not so much that they’ve been attacked as it is that they’re afraid of becoming attacked. For eg, if a neighbor of yours is attacked, you might be fearful of being the next victim.”
“It’s one thing to be the target of an assault, but it’s quite another to continually live under this pall of fear. Almost every Ghanaian is forced to live in fear of the country’s security breakdown. Another issue is that it is clear that the surveillance infrastructure is not well set up, and one of the benchmarks we’ve set for it is the speed at which the police will be reached. There is already one number that Ghanaians usually use to contact the police, which we must examine as soon as possible.”
Background
On May 11, 2021, Mr. Caleb Kudah was detained at the National Security Ministry for filming abandoned MASLOC vehicles stored on the Ministry’s premises.
He was at the Ministry to check a report made by a MASLOC official that all of the cars procured by the department had been distributed.
This came after Caleb Kudah posted on social media about the waste of public funds.
A squad of heavily armed SWAT police officers was then deployed to apprehend Citi News‘ Zoe Abu-Baidoo Addo at the Citi FM/Citi TV headquarters.
Meanwhile, three police officers implicated in the Caleb Kudah incident have been removed from the National Security Ministry.
The Ghana Police Service will also take punitive measures against them.
“The three (3) police officers involved have been removed and are to return to the Ghana Police Service for inquiry and disciplinary action,” said a statement signed by the sector minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, from the Ministry of National Security.
It has also withdrawn Lieutenant Colonel Frank Agyeman’s secondment as Director of Operations.
“The Ministry’s secondment of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Agyeman (Director of Operations) has been revoked. The officer must return to the Chief of Defence for further investigation and action.”
This came after the Ministry launched an inquiry into the attack and found that the operatives’ conduct breached the Ministry’s operational principles.
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SOURCE: ATLFMONLINE
