I used criminals to arrest criminals – Ex-CID boss

Former Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Bright Oduro, has denied reports he was behind the activities of criminals and land guards in the country.

COP Oduro was asked to proceed on leave on Friday, October 13, 2017 after Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, accused him of protecting and shielding criminals and land guards at Miotso in Greater Accra. Mr Agyapong questioned why Mr Oduro was still at post.

But he has since been asked to proceed on leave.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of the Ghana Yensom show on Accra 100.5FM on Wednesday, October 18 COP Oduro said: “My accusers don’t know me, they haven’t met me before and they don’t really know how I am. I will be the last person to shield a wrong doer and so why will someone say I am shielding criminals? What do I stand to gain from shielding criminals? For what? Does it make sense?

“I have a whole network of informants and I believe I am one of the officers in Ghana who has so many informants and so I am able to direct my officers to the specific hideouts of these criminals to be arrested.

Where do I get the information from? I get the information from the same criminals because the most reliable information comes from the one we normally refer to as criminal informant.

“If my contact with criminal informants is what is prompting assertions that I am shielding criminals, then that person making the allegation doesn’t know what he is talking about.

If you are a CID detective you should have informants. Cultivating informant and using informant is one of the key issues every investigator must have, otherwise, you will be there as an investigator and won’t be able to do anything.”

He added: “This is what I have done. Atta Ayi was arrested based on information we gathered from some of these criminals. But one must be cautious with the association with them because somebody will assume that you have something to do with those criminals.

Some criminals have gone to jail and have come back and have decided to give information to the police after they have served their sentences. And so nobody can say that Bright Oduro is fraternising with criminals when you don’t even mention names.

“They accuse me of fraternising with land guards. For what? To ask land guards to go and take somebody’s land so that I gain what? A Director General of CID with 29 years of service experience to the nation going to fraternise with land guards.”