Government will re-engineer the security services

Kpando, Sept 16, GNA - Alhaji Abukari Sumani, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select-Committee on Defence, Interior and National Security, has assured the security services that government would re-engineer the security to make them more effective. He said government was aware of the difficulties the security services were facing and was doing its best to solve them. Alhaji Sumani, the Member of Parliament for Tamale North, said this when members of the committee interacted with security services under the ministries of Defence and the Interior and National Security in Hohoe Municipality and Kpando District.

They were the Police Service, Fire Service, Immigration Service, Prison Service, Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).

He said the purpose of the tour was to access information on their requirements and welfare issues in order to validate budget statements emanating from the security services.

Alhaji Sumani praised the security services for exhibiting professionalism and maintaining law and order in the face of difficulties they encountered. Major Derrick Oduro (RTD), acting Ranking Member and MP for Nkoranza North, urged the security services to coordinate and collaborate among themselves to eliminate crime that is becoming sophisticated and violent.

He appealed to them to gather intelligence in order to bust syndicates operating in drug farming, armed robbery and cyber crimes. The heads of the security services enumerated lack of and dilapidation of office and residential accommodation, general lack of logistics including communication gadgets, transport, inadequate fuel allocation and general service conditions as problems that had affected moral.

Others are the non-availability of fire tenders in nine districts in the northern segment of the Volta Region and lack of funds to develop parcels of land donated to the security services. Hajia Ramatu Dubbie, MP for Sissala North, appealed to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies to partner private estate developers and government towards securing accommodation for security services.

She urged the service services to redouble efforts to curtail chieftaincy, tribal and politically based conflicts and disputes describing them as having the propensity to destabilize the country. Their visits took them to the Kpando Medium Prison and Leklebi-Kame border.