Government to recruit 22,000 personnel into police service

The Ghana police service is expected to employ about 22,000 new recruits in the coming months.

This is according to the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery who has bemoaned the deficit of police officials in Ghana’s national security.

Records by the Ghana Police Service reveal that the ratio of security officials to civilians currently stands at 1 police man to 500 Ghanaians. This troubling reality falls in sharp contrast with the success stories of various African countries who have a satisfactory of police per civilian ratio.

In Kenya for example, the police to population, according to africacheck.org stands at 1 police officer to 448 civilians while in Nigeria (the most populated country in Africa), the police to civilian population stands at 370,000 to about 170 million Nigerians.

The revelation by the interior minister follows the scourge of recruitment scam that continues to rock the police service.

Checks by YEN.com.gh indicate that a former police officer had recently been arrested for engaging in such recruitment scams. Mark Awatey is documented to have reportedly defrauded over 15 persons at an amount of GH¢31,390 under the pretext of enlisting them into the Police Service.

Speaking on this issue, Chief Supt. Joseph K. Owusu, Suhum District Police Commander, said the suspects, who live at Suhum, between the months of August and September, 2015, persuaded the victims that they would recruit them into the Police Service.

Meanwhile all prospective recruits are being cautioned by the Ghana Police Service to only apply for recruitment via the official website of the Ghana Police Service and not any third party.